An Adventure Out of Darkness
by FantasyIntoReality8
Summary: Hannah is just your ordinary girl, as over-used as that sounds, it's true. She lived a good life with friends and a loving family. But Hannah wanted an adventure. And she got one, in the worst way possible. Her kind soul led to her downfall, and now she has to survive the violent world in the anime Naruto.
1. Chapter 1

The day was like any other; the only surprising thing was that it was actually nice outside. Sun was shining and birds were chirping a merry tune. Grass gleamed emerald under the bright, blue sky- and all this superb positivity is annoying.

Granted, it was beautiful day... a beautiful day to kick some ass!

Within all this unnatural serenity, there was the roar of obnoxious fans cheering on a game.

CRACK!

The neon yellow blur screamed through the air, but crashed right into a girl's knee cap. She collapsed to the ground, like a puppet getting its strings cut. Her high pitched screech split across the field and ringed in the witness's ears. Tears streamed down her scrunched face while she carefully cradled her injured knee. The pitcher's coach rushed onto the field, soon followed by the team medic. They crouched beside the pain-stricken girl, quietly whispering in their little huddle.

Meanwhile, the batter rounded first base and had sprinted to second, utilizing the pitcher's pain as a distraction to get a double out of her hit.

Now this may seem inconsiderate, but this is softball. The way I view line drives is if you're going to hit somebody make sure to hit them hard. Hit them hard enough and they're out of the game. Ok that is pretty brutal, but suck it up buttercup this is softball. Also, secretly, it has been one of my goals to take out a pitcher with one of my line drives.

My green painted lips curved into a smirk. I'm so happy! I can finally check that goal off my list now!

If you haven't guessed yet, I am the batter that hit the amazing line drive. I mean, damn, that was a hard hit.

Still with my obnoxious smile etched on my face, I fixed my attention back on the pitcher's mound in time to see the injured girl get carried off the field. A new, slower player took the mound and my highschool team soon started hitting multiple doubles and triples.

Just to summarize the rest of the game in an effort not to bore you, my highschool team won the game 6-5. And holy cow that was an amazing game!

"See you tomorrow, Hannah. Good game today."

"Thanks, you too," I waved at my teammate leaving the dugout.

 _Guess I'll put the bases and stuff away._ It was a home game today so it was my school's responsibility to clean up the field, but all of my teammates abandoned the field as quickly as possible and my coach left to unlock the locker room door for them. At least my coach had the kindness to ask if the few people left would be able to clean up the field. I had automatically said yes, however as soon as he left my teammates ducked out. I sighed as I finished tying my shoelaces, and made my way over to each of the bases. I dug them out of the ground and then chucked them into the shed, locking the door. Walking back into the dugout, I grunted as I lifted my big catchers bag off the dirt and started slowly making my way back to the school. I had stored my school clothes and backpack in the locker room and needed to pick it up before my parents came to take me home.

 _And I have a bunch of tests tomorrow...that should be exciting. Hopefully there is still somebody left to open the door for me._

I strolled through the partially forested path that led back to the school, dragging my catcher bag behind me. I looked up at the trees hanging over my head, pondering what I would do when I got home.

 _So before I do my homework I need to get something to eat, most likely ramen, and then I get to chill for a bit. Maybe I'll continue reading that Naruto fanfiction that I found._

Fun fact about me is I am a very avid reader and love any book with fantasy, adventure or romance. So when a friend went on and on about this anime called _Naruto_ , I thought they were a crazy nerd. Ironic because I take pride in calling myself a nerd and usually when I call someone else a nerd it's a compliment.

But I decided to humor them and watched the first episode. Guess what? 500 plus episodes later and I still loved it. So when I ran out of episodes I looked up fanfiction for _Naruto_. I usually do this with books that I absolutely loved and had finished. I just never want the fantastical world to end and have to return back to a boring reality.

If I could, I would love nothing more than to go to a different universe within my favorite books and movies so that I could have an adventure. I dream of having magical powers and being unique compared to the generic human; and I truly believe that magical abilities and creatures still exist on Earth.

 _Alright, so my finalized plan for this afternoon is go home, eat and then escape into the fictional world._

My gaze fell back down and stared at the random shadows casted by the sunlight in the treetops.

 _It's funny how much I'm pinning for a fictional world when I already have a pretty lucky lif…_

I whipped my head to the right and peered into the forestry as I heard a loud snap. I tried to look beyond the trees and branches at the forefront, but could not see anything out of the ordinary. I shrugged my shoulders and continued moving forward, although now my guard was in hyper mode.

A screech escaped my mouth as my eyes locked on a man standing in the middle of the trail. But as soon as I recognized him my shoulders lost a bit of their tension.

"Yo, Jim hello." Jim was in a few of my classes this year and I had paired with him in a few group projects. He was a nice guy, a little quiet at times but overall very kind. Despite our small connection, I would have continued to walk past him after my acknowledgement, but the tired look in his eyes made me freeze. His lanky frame was slouched in defeat and it pulled at my heartstrings.

"Hey are you alright? You don't look too good." His hair was disheveled and clothes were wrinkled and torn in some places. His tired eyes were also a blood red and his mouth constantly tugged downward in a frown.

"I'm just tired," he finally sighed.

"Tired of what?" I questioned quietly. He took a small step forward. I stood still.

"I'm tired of school. I'm tired of my so called friends. I'm tired of my parents. I'm tired of my life!" His voice progressively became a yell at the end, accompanied by another few steps toward me.

My heart was beating rapidly and my brain was in overdrive. I wanted to help him so much, it's in my nature to help others in need. But he seemed like he already made a decision to help himself. Weird.

"Hey, Jim," I gently placed my catchers bag on the ground and held up my hands non-threateningly, "I know life sucks at times, but you have to focus on the long game. You will eventually find true friends that won't hurt you. You are not the only person with terrible parents so don't throw yourself a dramatic pity party when you could be protecting others in your same situation. You need to stay strong." I mimicked him and took a couple steps towards him, deeply hoping my words had an effect.

"No, no, no!" he violently shook his head, "I have been fighting and staying strong my entire life! I never had any chance of happiness and nobody wants or likes me! I deserve freedom! I deserve a stop to my suffering!" His hand reached behind him and slowly pulled out a gun with shaking hands.

"I just wanted somebody to know. Somebody who could actually genuinely care about my life," he shoot a sad and weak grin in my direction.

His quivering hands quickly brought the gun to his temple and he scrunched his eyes up, expecting the end.

" NOOOO!" I rushed forward and grabbed the gun by the barrel, hoping to wrestle it out of his weak grasp. Nobody was going to die on my watch. Surprisingly, he was strong, the type of strength pulled from determination.

"Stop it! I want this!" he cried. I refused to listen to his ramblings and continued trying to pull the gun away from him.

Unexpectedly, he let go. My momentum made me tumble to the ground, but so did the gun. It slipped from my grasp and landed harshly beside me. The impact ignited the loaded gun. The last thing I remembered is hearing my scream fill my ears and seeing the dark hole of the barrel glaring back at me.


	2. Chapter 2

The darkness was peaceful, quiet. There was no people, no living creature. I expected death was something like this. There was no stereotypical beacon of light you had to follow. I just basked in the emptiness, the unnatural weightlessness of my limbs feeling odd.

 _What a second. I'm dead. So why do I still feel… so...solid? Actually, now that I think about it, how did I die?_

A headache ignited in my head, worsening quickly into a migraine.

 _At least it's dark,_ I thought bitterly.

Searing pain sliced through my head, making my body jerk. I weakly called out for any type of help, but I knew nobody could reach me in death. My body winced in agony as my migraine brought forth unwanted memories to forefront of my mind.

I witnessed my conversation with Jim over and over again. My heart steadily growing too painful to bear. I rewatched the gun going off multiple times, staring death in its face. The shot rang in my ears everytime.

BANG!

"Oh please make it stop!" I screeched.

BANG!

"I'll do anything!"

BANG!

"End this torture!"

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

"AAHHHHHH!"

I scrunched my face in undeniable agony, the feeling inhabiting every single cell in my body. Through my shut eyes, a bright light seared into my vision causing even my eyeballs to hurt. My mouth was stretched open in a silent scream.

After what seemed to be an eternal torture, the torment started to fade. It left only a sharp ache in all my muscles and joints. The relief crashed through my form and I instantly fell asleep from pure exhaustion.

* * *

My heavy eyelids slowly flickered open. Everything was a blur of green and blue as I tried to focus my vision. I looked left and right, my eyesight coming back to me bit by bit.

I tried to lift myself off what I now identified as grass. I winced lightly as my muscles strongly ached. However, after what I just experienced, aching muscles were like a paper cut.

Finally, I managed to prop myself on my forearms. Even that simple movement made me want to sleep for another day. I let out a grated sigh as I once again observed the area I was in.

It seemed to be a clearing surrounded by healthy, green trees. Grass filled the entire area and a few clouds spotted the blue sky. Looking upon the forest, dark shadows were speckled in between the branches.

I tensed involuntarily. _Shadows cast on the ground from sunlight in the treetops…_

The sound of soft footsteps appeared behind me. I flinched harshly as I was released from my flashback.

After a few seconds my body tensed in fear, finally acknowledging the fact that I wasn't alone. Now I wouldn't normally be so frightened, however my limbs were dead weight. I wouldn't be able to maneuver enough to protect myself.

Eventually, the footsteps stopped behind me. My breathing turned ragged. I heard a soft grunt of surprise from my company before the footsteps started up again. This time when I tuned back into reality, a pair of gray eyes stared back at me.

* * *

"Who are you?" a stern but youthful voice questioned.

I blinked. Then blinked again as I could not believe my eyes. _Let's make a checklist just so I know I'm not going crazy. Dark blue mask on face? Check. Spiky, gravity defying silver hair? Check. Headband with the Leaf village symbol engraved in it? Check. OH SHIT!_

My eyes expanded and my mouth gaped like a dying fish. _This is Kakashi Hatake?!_ _I'm in the Naruto universe?!_

Kakashi furrowed his brows in annoyance and moved so that he was crouched right in front of me. I looked him up and down, noticing the full ninja gear and outfit but not fully comprehending it.

"Kakashi…" I wordlessly mumbled. He cut me a glare and suspicion crept into his eyes.

"How do you know me?" he asked curtly. I just sat there looking like a deer in headlights. He rolled his eyes in frustration and I saw his mask shift slightly as he prepared to ask another question.

"Who'd you find Kakashi?" a kind voice interrupted. He shifted his attention a fraction above my head and his posture calmed. I don't think I wanted to even know who was behind me. Somehow I managed to find the energy to tilt my head just enough to see behind me. I froze once again as my mind refused to compute what I saw.

"Now what's your name young lady?" Minato politely questioned. As I stared into his blue orbs, adrenaline surged through my limbs and snapped me out of my delirious state.

I jumped up and took a couple shaky steps backwards. Unfortunately, those steps led me right into the cage of Kakashi's arms. His grip was firm on my arms as my small surge of energy left me and I immediately crumpled to the ground. At least I would have if Kakashi didn't keep me upright. I lifted my heavy head to stare back into Minato's eyes, reading the suspicion and concern held within. I knew from the anime that I would be able to trust these two, and the concern present in him helped to calm my nerves.

"You're Minato and he's Kakashi," I managed to whisper. I felt Kakashi's head jerk up in surprise and saw Minato's eyes widen as he looked at both Kakashi and me.

"I died," I rasped, "and now I'm here." I could feel Minato and Kakashi questioning gaze focused intensely on my form. All I could do was try to catch my breath. I was able to calm down as my breath and heart synced up with Kakashi's heartbeat that I could hear within his chest. Under their silent inspection, my brain decided to finally catch up to the situation. _Guess I need to see the Hokage now. Wait, isn't Minato the Fourth Hokage?_

"Hey, aren't you the Hokage?" I could feel their surprise dramatically increase.

Now Minato was the one who looked like a dying fish, eyes wide. After a good 5 minutes, his lips stretched into a wide smile and his eyes glazed over.

"I'm gonna be Hokage?" He shook his head back and forth in disbelief, shoulders shaking with a silent laugh. I bet he would squeal like a little girl if Kakashi wasn't scrutinizing him.

 _Alright so that's a no to my question. Guess I should keep the rest to myself then._

"Sooo… Can you take me to the Hokage?" I asked. That seemed to snap Minato out of his daydream. He let out a cough, clearing his throat before saying a simple,

"Sure!"

We started walking in some random direction, probably towards the village. _What am I thinking! Of course it towards the village._ I internally rolled my eyes at myself.

I was still too shaky to walk on my own so I gained a piggyback ride from Kakashi. Surprisingly, the ride was very smooth even though they were jogging. I went to observe my surroundings but we were just basically surrounded by trees.

I rested my chin on Kakashi's shoulder, next to his right ear. I heard a slight intake of breath and watched as his eyes flickered back and forth from the path towards me. I turned my head slightly and whispered in his ear,

"If you have a question you can just ask it. I won't get offended." I smirked as he tripped and subtly corrected himself. Minato briefly looked over at us with a suspicious expression. He shrugged off the incident and continued jogging.

"How much do you know?" a soft voice queried. It was my turn to jump slightly. It had been a few minutes since any of us had made a sound.

I looked at his masked face. _Oh the torture he went through as a child, and he's gonna go through so many more hardships. I'm worried for him._ I quietly murmured, "More than I should."

He gave me a questioning glance, but overall accepted my answer. For now.

The question had put me in a depressed state. I didn't even realize when we reached Konoha's gates. The only notification to me was Minato and Kakashi slowing to a walk. I looked up at the gates, letting out a dramatic gasp. The two boys chuckled at my behavior, but I couldn't help it. The gates were huge! It was easily the height of my highschool if not more.

I was in silent awe as we walked through the gates. I automatically twisted my head to the left, hoping to catch Izumo and Kotetsu sleeping on the job. And there they were. Sleeping like two giant newborn babies. I giggled.

Kakashi looked back at me. He saw my diverted attention and looked to find what had caught my interest. He rolled his eyes when he saw the two guards taking a nap. Meanwhile, Minato strolled over to them and putting each hand on the opposite sides of each others head, slammed them together. They woke up with a start and clutched their heads.

"Ow, ow, ow, what was the for!" yelled Izumo. Minato just shrugged his shoulders and walked away from their desk, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

The walk through the village was very peaceful. It was relaxing just watching people go through their daily routines. It seemed that they had no care in the world. It was amusing.

A frown tugged on my face as I looked on. _That used to be me,_ I thought. It hadn't hit me yet that I was in another dimension. But when it does I'm sure I won't be a happy camper. For now, though, I am going to enjoy the serenity or normality in others.

Finally, we reached the Hokage building. I took a deep breath to steady my nerves. Slowly, I slid off of Kakashi's back and shakily stood; Minato and Kakashi looked on as I balanced myself. The strength had slowly come back to me as I rode on Kakashi's back, and I was ready to walk on my own. _Hehe "rode". Gosh, Hannah no time for your crazy thoughts!_

I started walking into the building, the boys trailing after me. I could tell from their stares on my back that they were curious about how I knew where to go. I just shrugged them off and climbed the stairs.

 _Oh my god why are there so many stairs!_ I was winded as we reached the top. I blame death for my weakness. After I caught my breath I faced the double doors. I knocked firmly. After I heard a quiet, "come in," I stepped through the doorway, ready to recite my story.


	3. Chapter 3

The office that I entered seemed to have a very homely atmosphere. The warm-colored wood of the floor and highlights of red streaking the room was somehow comfortable. In the middle of the room resided a grand desk with multiple stacks of paper on it, some littering the ground as well. Behind that desk, was the Hokage.

Not surprisingly, he looked pretty much like the anime, but realistic. Wrinkles covered his face, but they were more like smile crinkles mixed in with some stress. He had a pointy gray beard, and his giant Hokage hat covered his head, partly shadowing his face. But his eyes still shown through. They were magnificent. They may just seem like a pair of ordinary eyeballs, but they hold so much wisdom and experience within those little orbs. He automatically gained my respect. _Well, he already had my respect from the anime, but you know, that's not the point here!_

I shook off my thoughts and slowly walked towards the old man, stopping in front of his desk. HIs eyes crinkled in a kind, soft smile.

"Now who might you be?" he questioned. I looked behind me at Minato and Kakashi stoically at attention in front of their Hokage. They looked confused at why I looked at them, and when I turned around, the Hokage looked confused as well.

"Perhaps we could talk in private?" He looked a little startled at my request. _It's not like I have anything against Kakashi and Minato, quite the opposite actually. They are some of my favorite characters and I wouldn't mind having them hear my story. But, I just don't want that to happen. I don't think I can handle it._

Sarutobi gave me a funny look, but still granted my request. "Kakashi and Minato wait out in the hall. I'll talk to you afterwards." The two boys nodded their heads in understanding and politely walked out of the room. Kakashi was the last to leave, and before he closed the door he gave me an almost judging look. I wasn't too surprised honestly. I didn't expect him to trust me easily so I wasn't offended by his rudeness. Or I didn't care at the moment. You know, because I literally just died. I have more important matters to take care of.

Once the room was clear of the two ninjas, the Hokage leveled his gaze on me. His right eyebrow raised in a silent question, patiently waiting for me to start the conversation.

I told him everything. My name, my life in another dimension, the fact that they were an anime, and how I had died and somewhere ended up here. Obviously nothing personal and stuff, but I wanted him to know as much as possible because I trust him. I wanted him to help me figure out this situation.

Why am I here? Why is this place even real? Why did I have to die?

The Hokage didn't interrupt a single time as I spoke. By the end of it, my eyes were glazed and it was a struggle not to let a waterfall of tears escape. Telling my story made the memories resurface, and I basically relived my death. Again.

He was quiet for a while, a look of contemplation crossing his face. In the meantime, I was trying to discreetly wipe away any tears that may have fell. After I had somewhat pulled myself together, the Hokage finally spoke.

"That's much to take in," he became quiet for a while, "Can I have insurance that you will not use any of your knowledge to harm my village and it's people?"

I looked at him slightly bewildered. _How could he ever think I would harm any of these people? I love the characters in this anime! But I guess they aren't characters anymore; they are real, living, breathing people that can get hurt physically and emotionally._ I couldn't tell if I was saddened or happy at this thought.

"No sir, I would never hurt anybody who didn't deserve it," I responded. He let out a big smile at my response, and rose slowly from his chair. He walked around his desk until he stood in front of me. I rose as well so I was on the same height as him, and he took my shaking hands in his. I could feel the calluses on his hands, but they were overall a comforting softness. I looked up into his kind eyes.

"Welcome to Konoha," he said brightly. My eyes widened and he squeezed my hands gently for extra emphasis. I couldn't say I was surprise, I kinda expected this response. But just hearing the words, "welcome to Konoha," solidified my reality. I was talking to the Hokage. I was in Konoha. I was in my favorite anime Naruto. I was taken from my family. I probably would never see them again.

I shot a sad smile back at him. He didn't seem to mind the sadness that crept into my gaze. "Now, I need to get you a place to live. In the meantime, you could probably stay with…"

"Obito! Don't go in there! The Hokage is having a private discussion!" yelled an exasperated voice before the door burst inward. The doors slammed against the walls and rebounded closed again abruptly.

I flinched violently, my hands jerking out of the Hokage's gentle grasp. It repeated over and over in my head.

BANG! BANG!

I shook from head to toe, my eyes glazed over as I was stuck in my flashback. I could vaguely hear the exclamations of Obito, but in my mind, all I could see was the depressed expression of Jim. The gun pointed to his head. The gun pointed to me.

I snapped out of it when I caught a brief glimpse of a hand waving frantically back and forth in front of my face. I focused solely on the hand, its action pulling me into reality. I flinched back in surprise when the hand was suddenly replaced by a face. Big, orange goggles, concentrated eyes and black spiky hair greeted my sight. Obito.

"Hey Gramps, what's this girl doing in your office? She new?" When I looked towards the Hokage, his gaze was already on me, filled with immense concern. I lightly shook my head, hoping to ward off his concern. It seemed like it worked as he, once again, turned his attention to the source of our interruption. His eyes got a slight glare as he looked at Obito, but nevertheless, still held slight amusement.

Obito shrunk under his gaze, a nervous chuckle escaping him. Minato and Kakashi entered the room at this point, and both of them were glaring at Obito. They both briefly glanced at me, then focused on the Hokage. I don't think I would be able to handle their stares in my fragile state. _At least I haven't cried yet. Haha, that would have been embarrassing. Plus, I hate crying, especially in front of other people._

"Well," the Hokage started off, "before I was so rudely interrupted," que glare at Obito, "I was going to say that until I get you your own apartment, I suggest you stay in Minato's household." The Hokage finished with a smile and looked at Minato expectedly. Minato looked slightly surprise, but overall happy.

"I am sure that will be fine, sir. Kushina would be glad to have a girl around. I know she gets tired of me every once in a while." Minato gave a slight chuckle and scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"Well then it is settled," the Hokage walked back to his chair and sat down, "now leave my office. And Obito? Don't barge into my office again."

"Hehe, I won't sir." Now it was Obito's turn to scratch the back of his neck.

We all filed out of his office, and no later than one step out of the Hokage building, I was suddenly bombarded by a million questions from Obito.

"What's your name? Are you new here? Of course your new. I like your hair. Is that natural or died? Are you a ninja? I hope your a ninja, you would seem like an interesting teammate. Where did you come fro... Mfmfmhmhm?" Kakashi's hand smacked down on Obito's flapping mouth, stopping them in their track. Obito just kept mumbling words into Kakashi's palm as he gave him an accusing look. He stopped talking. It took a few seconds until Kakashi leapt away from Obito and grunted in disgust.

"I can't believe you just licked my hand," muttered Kakashi. I gave a slight smile at the thought. _They are really good friends. Despite them acting like enemies._

Kakashi glared lightly at me. _Oops. Guess he noticed me smile._

Kakashi started stomping forward and as he past me whispered, "It is not funny." He turned to Minato. "I'm going to go train."

"No, no, no. You guys are coming with me to see Kushina. She hasn't seen you guys much and she misses you. Plus, I need support when she goes crazy at having a girl in the house." He gave a chuckle at the thought of her.

My eyes widened. _Oh my god. I am going to die. Again. But by a hug._ I thought as I remembered how the anime described Kushina as very, lets say, enthusiastic.

"But Sensei," Obito whined, "we saw her just last week!"

"You are not leaving me alone on this," Minato commanded. _Jeez, I guess he does have a scary face._ The two boys sighed dramatically in defeat, and we started walking towards Minato's house.

The scenery was beautiful. Well, we were still in the town, but everything just seemed to have a bright, vibrant vibe to it. I looked to my left and saw Kakashi walking next to me, hands stuffed into his pockets.

"It was kinda funny," I whispered towards him. I almost thought he didn't hear me until I heard an annoyed grunt and saw a brief flash of rolling eyes. I snickered.

Looking behind us, I saw Obito bouncing around Minato, talking animatedly. I smiled at the pair, just like Minato as he smiled down at his energized student.

"He's so annoying." I turned around to look at Kakashi again. But his attention was still focused on Obito and his Sensei.

"Aww, is somebody jealous?" I teased. He lacked appreciation for my comment and shot me a glare. I just shrugged, giggling internally. I saw his mask twitch slightly and it move to mimic him opening his mouth. Before he could get a word out though, Obito bounced in between us and wrapped an arm around each of us. I smirked at the fact that I got the last word in. _Hehe suck on that Kakashi._ He seemed to know what I was thinking because when I looked over, another piercing glare was aimed in my direction.

Obito babbled up a storm on the last treks of our walk, and before we knew it we were in front of the Uzumaki's door. Minato slyly stepped around our trio and let himself in.

"Kushina I'm home! And I brought some guests!" he screamed into the house. The loud clanking of what seemed like pots and pans resonated throughout the house.

My body jerked. I shut my eyes. _Not now, not now, not now!_ I chanted in my head until I calmed down. When I opened my eyes again, I noticed that Minato and Obito already left for the kitchen, judging by the excited squeals. I was left with Kakashi.

He was looking at me strangely, eyes narrowed in what could be considered suspicion. I glared back at him. _No way am I giving in to one of his little interrogations. He can go shove his questions up his ass._

I walked away quickly, head held high. I could briefly make out the soft padding of his footsteps following me.

The kitchen I soon entered was very nice; had a homey vibe to it. A giant gust of wind rushed past me, spinning me around with its force. I came to an abrupt stop, bewildered. Looking behind me, I could see a beautiful, red-headed lady hugging, squishing, and rubbing her cheek against Kakashi's face. His expression was priceless!

I walked over to Minato and Obito sitting at the table, still laughing at Kakashi's predicament. I stopped right at Minato's shoulder.

"Your wife is really something. Although I kinda expected it." He gave me a slightly confused look, but turned to look at his hyperactive lover. He released a dopey smile.

"Ya, she's great. But don't think she forgot about you," he turned to me with a smirk.

"Huh?" I said dumbly. Pythons then snaked around my waist and started squeezing me. I squeaked loudly in surprise as I was lifted off the ground and spun around in a couple circles.

"Awwwww! Aren't you just the cutest thing!" Kushina squealed as she finally let go of her death grip, and turned me around so I got a good look at her face. She really was beautiful. Her red hair draped around her elegantly and the exuberance in her blue orbs was energizing. _Jeez, why are anime characters even more beautiful when they look like actually human beings?_

"What's your name, button?" she asked. I could hear a quiet chuckle behind me along with a mocking, "button." _Kakashi is so going to get it when I'm released from Kushina's viper grip!_

"Umm, it's Hannah," I responded politely. I didn't know if Hannah was a weird name for this dimension, but I ain't changing it.

"And Hannah here, is going to be staying with us until the Hokage can find her an apartment. She's new to the village," interrupted Minato. I glared at him. _I know what you're doing mister._ He just greeted my glare with an innocent, little smile. His white teeth gleamed with mischief.

"AAAHHHH!" Kushina screeched right into my ear. I jerked away from her, covering my damaged ear. I growled in annoyance. Some annoyance at Kushina for blowing my ear off, but mostly to the chuckling joker behind me.

Kushina jumped up and down and clapped her hands like a child getting candy.

"Oh my gosh! I can't wait to have another girl around the house. You know Minato can be such a drag sometimes," he frowned at this, "oh hush, you big baby. Anyway, we can be girlfriends and do a bunch of stuff together. You know us red-haired girls have to stick together! Although your hair is a much prettier color than mine. Yours is almost a blood re…"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold it right there. My hair ain't red." I interrupted.

"Yes it is sweety! Come on I'll show you!" She took my arm and dragged me down the hallway. She whipped me around a corner and into a bathroom.

"See honey, it's red." Kushina smiled at me in the mirror. I was shocked.

"My. Hair. Is. RED!"


	4. Chapter 4

I gazed at the stranger in the mirror. They had blood red hair and matching red eyes. The face structure appeared similar to how I looked, but everything was sharper. The nose, eyebrows, even the dimples seemed the same.

 _Oh my glob. That's me!_

I was in disbelief. My mouth gaped, I couldn't look away from my piercing blood eyes. It was extraordinary.

"Sweetie, are you alright?" I hadn't moved a muscle as I stared at Hannah 2.0, and I guess Kushina was starting to get worried. I slowly turned my head to look at her. When she met my gaze a smile burst forth onto her face. I bet my eyes had little sparkles in them right now. A broad smile graced my face and I starting fidgeting from excitement.

 _Oh my god! I look so beautiful! I always wanted red hair and an exotic eye color. This is a dream come true! And red is my favorite color, too! How cool is that!_ Kushina and I mostly just silently observed my new self afterwards. I couldn't seem to shake off my excitement.

"Honey, is everything alright in here?" Minato, Obito, and Kakashi popped their heads into the bathroom. _We must have been gone longer than I thought._ They looked surprised as they inspected me. But I couldn't give a shit about what they're thinking right now because I'm still so happy! Sorry for saying that so much, but it's true. I faced the trio and let my broad smile shine through.

"How could you guys not tell me my hair was red? Plus my eyes as well! They are so pretty, you should have told me sooner! Ahhhhh! This is a dream come true!" They looked thoroughly startled at my outburst.

"That's the most you've ever talked before," mumbled Kakashi.

"Well we thought you already knew what your appearance was. Why are you so surprised?" asked Minato. Everybody looked at me expentently. I just smiled and said,

"I'm not from here," I heard Kakashi mumble "no shit" before Kushina smacked him on the head, "I used to have brown hair with blonde highlights and red streaks throughout. Plus my eye color used to be hazel. But I always wanted an unnatural look! Something that wasn't the social norm." I gazed back at myself, still disbelieving.

"Well, where did you live before this?" asked Obito.

"Washington," I said in a daze. Obito scrunched his nose in confusion.

"Washington? Never heard of it before. Where the hell is that?" I snapped out of my daze in a slight panic. _I wasn't supposed to tell anybody!_ I thought in panic.

"Ummm," I stuttered, "It's somewhere far away?" I said in the form of a question, unsure if he would buy it. Luckily, Obito smiled gleefully and accepted my answer, but the others weren't as convinced. They all gazed at me with either curiosity, or suspicion.

The suspicious gaze belonged to Kakashi. I stared him down, challenging him to question me in front of Obito. We locked into an intense staring contest.

"Alright children," Kushina said as she placed her palms on both Kakashi's and I's face, pushing them backwards so we both fell on our asses, "lets not break out into a fight here. We at least have to have some dinner first! It's getting pretty late." Kushina waltzed back to the kitchen, an obedient Minato following her with a slight sweat drop at her exuberance. It was just me, Obito and Kakashi left in the bathroom now.

I was still slightly on cloud nine, but it didn't stop me from continuing my glaring contest with Kakashi. Obito glanced back and forth between us, eventually saying, "Well I'm gonna go get food now, so see ya."

I briefly broke our contest to look at Obito and gave him a small smile saying we'll be right there. In return, Obito flashed me a goofy grin before dashing after the happy couple.

When I turned back to Kakashi, his eyebrows were downturned and I could only assume that he was frowning beneath his mask. Arms crossed in front of his chest grumpily completed the upset Kakashi picture.

"What?" I snapped. He had just been staring at me for an uncomfortable amount of time. Kakashi grunted and walked out of the bathroom. Slightly shocked, I followed him silently from the bathroom and into the kitchen.

The food smelt heavenly! My stomach let out growl at the smell, and I tried to cover it with a cough. I doubt people thought it was just a cough though because, come on, they're fucking ninjas! Grateful that they didn't laugh at me, I took a random seat at the small table. Minato helped Kushina serve everybody dishes and we all dug in.

To summarize, it was delicious! The whole dinner was mostly quiet, an occasional conversation popped up every now and then. I'm surprised nobody asked me anymore questions, but I was, again, grateful for the reprieve. I knew eventually I would have to quench their curiosity, but for now, I'll just enjoy some strange normality.

The time went by pretty quickly, and when we were done eating, it was close to midnight. Kushina threw this whole fit about not letting the boys walk home, a flustered Minato, Kakashi and Obito trying to calm her and tell her it was fine.

"No it is not fine!" She stopped being a whirlwind unexpectedly, startling the boys so they jumped back a few steps. "Kakashi, Obito," she pointed harshly at each boy, "you will have to share a room tonight in Hannah's new room." She quickly cut off an vocal protests with an effective glare. She softly turned to me, still sitting at the table observing the situation in amusement, a small smile gracing her face. "Sorry sweetie, I know it's your first night and all, and it sucks to be sharing it with boys, but would you do me this favor?" I cut her off before she went on and on with her begging.

"It's totally fine. As long as I get the bed." Kushina jumped in joy, while Kakashi and Obito hung their heads slightly in fake disappointment.

"Alright then," Minato said, "get in bed now. We have an early morning tomorrow." The boys casually walked together towards were apparently my room would be. I looked at Minato.

"I would assume that means me as well? The part where I have to wake up early?" I asked, pointing at myself.

Minato gave me a smiling nod. I departed soon after with a, "Just drag me out of bed," tossed over my shoulder.

I could hear their soft chuckles as I walked down the hallway. I had no clue which one was my room. I assumed that mine would have two boys in it though. _That sounded slightly...inappropriate._ I shook off my cringy thoughts and continued towards the only door with it's light shining into the hallway.

Stepping into the room, I saw Obito happily snoring away on the floor and Kakashi sitting against the wall with his eyes closed peacefully. I, personally, find myself wanting to do exactly what Obito was doing, but I forced myself to walk a few more steps so I flopped on the bed instead of the hard floor. I wormed my way up to the pillow and under the covers, snuggling in tight.

The day had exhausted me, and once my head hit the pillow I was thrown into a fitful sleep. I was so tired, that I wasn't able to feel the eyes staring holes at the back of my head.

* * *

"Hey girl, wake up." I distantly heard the voice, but I was too deep in my sleep. I snuggled closer into the warmth of the bed, and turned so I was laying on my right side.

"God dammit, I said wake up!" the voice was yelling in my ear now. I didn't appreciate it all that much. I grumbled, annoyed, and continued to try and sleep. Whoever was trying to wake me sighed deeply, and I heard their stomping footsteps as they walked away.

I knew I should wake up soon, but I could still get a few more moments of warmth before I had to wake up and go to school. Ugh, I hate school. The only good part of it is having a chance to hang out with my friends.

I let out a squeal as I was dragged harshly out of the covers. My eyes shot open. _This isn't my normal wake up routine!_ I thought madly. I struggled as I was thrown over a random shoulder and carried out of my room.

"Let me go!" I shrieked. My kidnapper just continued their nice walk, like this was an everyday occurance. Luckily, my flapping feet managed to smack my assailant in the face, making them grunt and lose their hold on me slightly. I wiggled off their shoulder and plummeted to the ground. The impact jarred away any leftover trace of sleep, and I bolted. By the time I managed to escape, we had already made our way outside, so I was running through random streets now.

 _Wait. Hold up._ I froze in my tracks. My sudden stop wasn't expected by my kidnapper though, and they crashed into my back. We both tumbled to the ground loudly. We groaned in unison, and when I opened my eyes, I saw Kakashi hovering over me. He must of caught himself before crushing me with his weight.

It took a few seconds or so for me to process why he was here, and then the events of yesterday crashed over me. My sight became blurry as I remembered that I wouldn't be able to see my family again. I just thought this morning that I would be seeing them, but no. It was highly unlikely I would see my family and friends again.

A few tears slipped from my eyes. Kakashi just watched on. Eventually, he must have realised our position and flew off me, standing with slight embarrassment. I pulled myself off the ground and wiped away the last of the tears streaming down my face. Kakashi seemed satisfied with something as he started walking away, obviously expecting me to follow. And that's what I did.

I slowly trudged after him, already concluding that we were going to the training grounds to meet Minato, Obito, and probably Rin.

The walk was mostly quiet, only interrupted by the sounds of nature. It went by pretty quickly. Before I knew it, I was standing in front of Minato, awaiting instructions for I don't know what.

"So you already met Obito and Kakashi, but this one here is Rin." introduced Minato. Rin stepped forward, and she was honestly adorable, easy to see how Obito fell in love with her.

"Hi!" she pipped, "nice to meet you." She gave me a curt wave after her introduction, stepping politely away and joined Kakashi and Obito as they were arguing a couple of feet away.

I looked up at Minato, expecting more. I already knew who Rin was so I wasn't too excited. Especially after the type of morning I had, I was quite irritable.

Minato gazed at his students with a fond smile, but still spoke directly at me.

"The Hokage asked me to check your skills, just to see if you have potential to be a kunoichi," he looked at me expectantly. I was lost in my mind though.

 _Skills. Exercise. Working out. Heart rate._

"Hey can I make a stop first, before all the training?" Minato looked mildly confused at my request, but in the end gave me permission. He asked if I needed help getting to where I needed, but I told him I would be just fine.

He let me go, and as I walked away, I felt the gazes of 3 curious people on my back. I shrugged them off.

My memory of the anime definitely helped me in finding the place I needed to go. Helped that it was one of the biggest buildings in the village and located in the center of it, too.

Not too long after I started my walk, I reached my destination. I looked up at it, took a deep breath, gathered my thoughts, and entered the hospital.


	5. Chapter 5

A burst of air forced its way out of my lungs as my back collided harshly with the unforgiving ground. I lay there groaning, glaring up at the clear, blue sky. I narrowed my eyes. _I swear that innocent looking atmosphere is just taunting me with its calminity. Be frustrated with me for once!_ I dramatically slammed my head backwards, immediately regretting the action as all it did was increase my impending headache.

In the midst of my pity party, a brunette head popped into my field of vision. I squinted my eyes as their head just coincidentally lined up perfectly with the sun shining overhead. After my vision adjusted, I was able to make out the concern expression residing on sweet Rin's face. But I was in no mood to react to her fake worry.

"Are you alright Hannah-san?" the female ninja asked. I lazily waved her off, trying to silently communicate to get out of my face. My request was denied, and since it couldn't get any better, a head with hair exceeding the sun's brightness also decided to get up in my face.

"That was quite a tumble you took. Let's take a break, shall we?" I glared up at Minato-sensei's smiling face. _That smile is just a brilliant lie to cover up the sadistic person inside_ , I thought. _He_ was the one to subject me to this torture. Mind you, I like to consider myself pretty fit and all considering that on my select softball team - in my previous life - I had to participate in weekly training and conditioning sessions with my coaches. In summary, it was pretty muscle intensive as you put it.

But _this_. This, wasn't training. It was like Minato set up a competition with his team to see who could throw me the farthest! Ever since I returned from my… detour… Minato-sensei arranged taijutsu spars with each member to test my strength and whatnot. Starting with Kakashi - _I don't know either, it's something about not underestimating me, but I personally call BS -_ I wasn't even punched a bunch. He just kept running around me in circles, and whenever I thought I could track him, he'd reach out and grasp my arm, throwing me full-strength into the farthest tree. He did this the entire time! 30 minutes of getting thrown into trees until Minato decided to get off his lazy, royal ass and call the match. Honestly, I think it was my fault it didn't end sooner cause everytime I collapsed after slamming into a tree, I took a few deep breaths before shakily getting to my feet and making another pathetic attempt to land a hit on Kakashi. He had the audacity to chuckle at my effort! The little self-entitled bastard! Anyways, I was left with, well, you could probably imagine my physical state after being thrown into a tree 50 times. Yes! 50!

Next was Obito. He definitely pulled his punches, a frown on his face the entire time. I, on the other hand, embraced my scowl. I didn't want nobodies fucking pity unless it was my own! _Look at my beautiful hypocrisy._ I tried my best to attack ruthlessly. Kicking and punching, hell I think at a moment I just flapped my arms like crazy trying to surprise the goddamn ninja. My inner comedian was slightly satisfied with the laughter I got from my small audience for that amazing plan. I think just my pure determination allowed me to land a couple weak hits on his toned body, but I was overall beaten. Badly.

Moving on to the present, because my fight with Rin was a literal shit show. At that point, I couldn't move a single goddamn muscle so I just let her throw me willy nilly. _Look at the girl, taking the easy way out of training,_ I mentally scoffed.

"Get up, girl." A steeled toe kicked my ribs, hard enough to bruise my bruise.

"Bastard," I groaned, and was rewarded with a nice flick to my forehead. I muttered some more choice words under my breath, and lifted my right arm in the air expectantly.

"What are you doing?" asked my silver-haired nuisance.

"I am patiently waiting for you to pull me off the ground, seeing as I can't move much. Shouldn't be too hard cause you had no problem flinging my body around like a doll earlier." I shifted my head slightly to direct a pointed glare at his masked face. I also mentally noted the lack of heads in my personal bubble which I was glad for.

 _Ah, I spoke too soon._ At that moment, another brunette intruded my vision but this one was male.

"Don't worry Hannah-chan! I'll help you up!" Obito yelled. My eyes widened significantly at his exuberance and I found myself forcing my head to shake back and forth in a negative.

"Oh no thank you Obito. I think I can get up just fine actu-" I cut myself off with a groan as Obito suddenly grasped my still offered hand and yank me off the ground. _I was actually finding the ground very comfortable,_ I thought as he pulled my limp body up. Pain lanced through all my muscles, like electricity raced through every one of my cells. _Funny since Kakashi didn't even use his lightning jutsu on me_.

My flippant thoughts quickly turned to panic however when I felt all my limbs seize up and my body seemed to be paralyzed. "Oh shit!" I screamed out as the momentum from Obito helping me stand was too powerful and I continued falling forward, unable to work my muscles. I squeezed my eyes shut in preparation for another collision with the ground, and as expected I felt my body smash into it hard.

I tried to contain my groans of pain, but some still escaped my mouth. _Wait a second. That one wasn't my groan._ My quick mind immediately tried to figure out the scenario where someone else would be in pain and it only came up with one option. _Oh why me?_ I internally had another pity party for myself before opening my eyes to face my inevitable doom. Right in front of my face, noses barely brushing past each other, was Kakashi in all his stormy-eyed, glaring glory.

"Get. Off," he gritted out. I just rolled my eyes in response. "Off now!" he snarled.

"Wow, you even showed your canines with that snarl of yours. I thought you were a civilized boy instead of an animal," I chuckled as he released a legit growl, "But I guess that's understandable because your summoning animal are dogs. Must have picked up some traits." His snarl faltered as he registered my words, but I quickly cut him off before he could question my knowledge of his ninkin. "And if I could get off you I would, but it seems as if my muscles are literally dead. I blame you."

With me getting the last word, I was suddenly dragged off the bastard and tossed a few feet away.

"Oh my God! Would you people stop tossing me around! I'm injured enough and I thought you were supposed to be a medical nin that _healed_ people!" I emphasized the heal part as I turned my head to face the oh so innocent Rin that attacked me. Her secret smug smirk faltered as she observed my angry expression and also processed my words. Too soon, guilt joined her satisfaction feeling on her readable features. "God fangirls," I muttered.

I released a squeak as I felt hands underneath my shoulder blades, gently lifting me off the ground. Once I was on two feet, they steadied me by keeping an arm wrapped around my waist and I was able to lean my spent body against them.

"Alright team," Minato started, "I'm going to take Hannah-chan home now so practice is over for now." With that, he scooped me up bridal style and I barely protested. I just rested my head on his surprisingly comfy shoulder, keeping my eyes trained on the three misfits.

In a flash - _haha get it? -_ we were in front of Minato and Kushina's house. The Yellow Flash calmly walked inside, but I was trying not to puke. I don't do too well with motions.

Minato went over to the couch and gently laid me out on it. I immediately snuggled into the soft cushions. I was swiftly approaching sleep, but was still able to catch Minato's parting words.

"You did well today Hannah-chan," I felt a soft blanket cover my form and gentle hands tucking in the sides, "I have to go talk to the Hokage now about your evaluation but I should be back soon and so will Kushina. You will make a great ninja one day, my dear." He softly finished, brushing a stray strand of hair behind my ear. I mustered any remaining strength to weakly grasp his hand.

"Thank you," I whispered as I finally fell asleep.

* * *

"Put up the sound barrier would you Minato?" asked the Hokage.

"Of course," Minato replied. After doing a few, quick hand signs, the Hokage felt the change of chakra in the air and knew that no curious ANBU or passing ninja in the halls would be able to hear them anymore. Minato swiftly took a seat in front of the Hokage's desk, crossing his left ankle on his right knee in a relaxed position.

"So how was she?" Minato released a frustrated sigh at this question, knowing the answer wouldn't be pleasant. He looked Hiruzen Sarutobi straight in the eyes.

"She was terrible." Minato thought the best way to go about this was just to be blunt. "Hannah has had no training and it really shows. The only way she was able to land hits during Obito's fight was because he was holding back, and even then the hits were weak. I didn't test her ninjutsu or genjutsu skills because she told me in the beginning that she has had no practice in either."

The Hokage rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration at this revelation. He had really hoped Hannah would contain some skills so that he could add her to the ninja ranks.

"However," Minato continued, "Hannah has strong determination. Every time Kakashi threw her into a tree she got up every single time, fifty times." Sarutobi raised a questioning eyebrow at the sensei.

"Why did he throw her fifty times? You didn't stop it?" A faint tint of red crept on Minato's cheeks at the slight critic.

"I did stop it eventually," he defends, "but I still had hope that she would surprise me because she kept getting up with a determined look. I thought she was going to do something surprising, but my assumption was a tad off," Minato admits.

"Alright," Sarutobi grumbled, "so you're saying that she is not fitted for the shinobi lifestyle?" Minato jumped out of his chair and waved his hands and head fast in a negative.

"No, no, no, I'm not saying that at all! She would be great as a ninja. Sure she doesn't have the skills but those can be taught. And she does have some strength and stamina with her that we can work with. But most of all, she is filled to the brim with the Will of Fire. She has that raw stubbornness and determination that just can't be taught. Cultivated correctly, Hannah could be a real asset."

The Hokage absorbed these words like a sponge, so glad that the girl wasn't useless. He had taken a liking to her, before he had even heard her sad backstory. The fact that she had potential was a relief for the elderly man.

"Thank you for the report Minato," the Hokage responded with a new brightness to his wise eyes, "and before you leave I want to officially task you with training Hannah and bring her quickly up to your standards for a shinobi. You're dismissed."

The two shared a hopeful smile together before Minato flashed out of the room, releasing the sound seal as well before leaving. The Hokage chuckled to himself before resuming his never ending paperwork.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: This chapter is a bit gruesome, so here is a little reminder so you guys don't go blaming me for not warning you. Enjoy!**

"I'm home!" My tired voice echoed throughout the vacant house as I softly shut the front door behind me. School today had been a real bore. It was just monotone talking all day long, and with the added joy of getting assigned ass-loads of homework. Now I get to be home and relax by myself. My brother is at work, as well as my mom and dad, so the peaceful quiet is all mine.

I dropped my brick of a backpack in a bin right inside the door, continuing on through the hallway to the kitchen. _Hannah need food, food, food._

Quickly shuffling over to the nearby cabinet, I snatched up a pack of chicken ramen. I made quick work of making my ramen, eager to satisfy my aching tummy. The steam from the boiling noodles wafted over my face, and I basked in the warmth. In no time at all, _well it was more like 3 minutes,_ I had a bowl of heaven sitting in front of me. I twirled the hot noodles around my fork and raised it towards my mouth. Just before I took a bite, I stopped. _Hold up. Where is Honey?_

I slowly set down my fork, abandoning the food in search of my precious dog.

"Honey? Where you at girl?" My footsteps were barely heard as I looked for my dog, getting frantically faster as my search kept turning up empty. I twisted towards the stairs and bounded up them. _The first floor was clear so she must be upstairs._ She wasn't in the hallway.

 _Ok she isn't sleeping at the top of the stairs which she likes to do, so she must be asleep on her bed in my parents room._ The thought didn't even cross my mind that there was no way Honey could have opened the closed door to the room while we were all gone.

I slammed the door open, and gasped. My eyes widened in horror and my mouth opened in a silent scream. My weak knees buckled, my body ungracefully dropped to the floor. Silent tears steadily flowed down my cheeks, and my hands yanked my hair in agony.

 _They're dead! All of them are dead! My family!_

Before my eyes, was something out of a horror movie. I couldn't keep my eyes still as they drunk in the disgusting details. My dog, precious Honey, was laying on her side at the edge of the bed, a bullet hole between her open, doe eyes. My parents were on the bed, twin holes between their eyes. I slowly turned my head left, to be greeted with the sight of my brother's body half inside the master bathroom, blood leaking out of the 2 centimeter hole in his head.

My brain stopped functioning, the image imprinting itself in my mind. Tears cascaded down my face and drenched my shirt.

 _Click!_ I froze.

Slowly, I rotated my kneeling body to look behind me and was greeted by a strangely familiar sight. A black, seeming-less endless hole of a gun barrel trained on me, shaking hesitantly. I dragged my eyes upward to the owner of the weapon, and a new batch of tears escaped. _Jim…_

My mentally unstable classmate looked down at me, a crazy glint to his eye. This was not the Jim I once new. This version had officially lost it.

"Jim," I sobbed, "please don't." My glazed eyes pleaded with him, begging for mercy. _Although now that my entire family is dead I don't know how I could survive all alone._ Jim cocked his head to the left, contemplating. A sinister smirk slowly emerged on his face.

"No. You deserve it after you failed to save me! And then you failed to save your family! How do you know what crazy things I did after you died?! You are a failure. A sad, dead failure!"

 _BANG!_

* * *

My eye shot awake like a bullet, and I gasped for breath. I couldn't see anything except for the vision of my family; I was blind to my surroundings. Vaguely, I heard the distant sound of a door being slammed shut, but it was hard when my hacking breaths consumed my eardrums.

I couldn't tell if it had been minutes or hours as I just lay on the couch, trying to focus my vision. But the image of a bullet hole leaking blood from my loved ones head wouldn't go away. The redness of the life liquid plagued my brain. _So red. Too much, too much red!_

I flinched out of my trance when a strong hand grasped my shoulder.

"Hannah dear! It's alright sweetie, I'm here!" Kushina practically screeched in my ear as her vibrant head popped into my line of sight. Unfortunately, I bypassed her concerned look and my gaze automatically fixed on her hair. Her red hair.

I scrambled off the couch and backwards, whispering no repeatedly. My movement was stopped by a warm wall, and I felt arms wrap around my stomach firmly.

"Get off!" I screeched at my captor, using unknown strength to struggle. My efforts were futile. I felt hot breath on my ear and the scratchiness of fabric on my cheek.

"Hannah, calm down. You're safe, everyone's safe." The whispered condolences managed to penetrate the hazy fog covering my mind, and I started to calm down. My breathing evened out and all the energy in my limbs vanished. Exhaustion washed over me, making me collapse against the body behind me. Luckily, their arms held me up, hugging me to their sturdy chest, oddly protective. I forced my eyelids to crack open, but only saw black fabric. I slightly turned my head to the right and to see a defeated looking Kushina kneeling on the soft couch. Guilt coursed through me at her sadness, but instantly flinched as I glimpsed her hair. I ducked my head back into my personal body support person, squeezing my eyes shut again. The person I was leaning against inhaled sharply and tightened their arms surrounding me, surprising me slightly.

The front door open and I heard muffled whispers. At one point, a deep growl emanated from the chest I was resting against, startling me awake from the sleep I was slowly drifting towards, the cocoon of arms making me feel falsely safe enough to attempt this.

"I'm taking her to bed," a voice stated. I let out an undignified grunt as somebody swept an arm behind my knees, and started carrying me bridal style until they gently laid me on what I assumed was my soft bed. They quickly left, leaving the door slightly ajar. I could tell because I saw the light from the hallway illuminate my face.

Unfortunately, as tired as I looked, I was wide awake. There was no chance that I would fall back asleep and risk seeing _that_ again. So I just laid there, rolling over to face the wall, and tried to think of something to preoccupy my thoughts. _Well, besides the obvious._

Eventually, the unnatural quiet got on my nerves. I hopped out of bed and shut the door as quietly as I could, but hesitated. Faintly, I heard soft sobs echoing down the hallway along with quiet shushing of a supporting person. Dejectedly, I finished closing the door and made my way to the window. Opening it, I jumped out onto the neighboring rooftop and carefully walked across the ridge. _God, this would be so much easier if I was an actual ninja._ I reached the edge of a roof about 6 houses down from my new house, and was relieved to see a ladder attached to its side. I scrambled down it and onto the street, making my way quickly to somewhere. I don't know where, but I needed to be anywhere but _there_.

I zoned out after a bit, letting my legs carry me wherever they wanted to go. I only snapped out of it when I realized my path was grass and not paved dirt anymore. The moon shone overhead, barely providing enough light to see 10 feet in front of my face.

Suddenly, I felt the urge to go into action, the need to release some frustration. Marching to a nearby forest, I began my source for exercise. Fairly quickly, I found a thick branch and not too far from that was a bunch of pinecones. Keeping a hold of the stick, I gathered up some of the pinecones and brought them back to the clearing I previously saw as I headed to the forest initially.

I started tossing the cones in the air and hitting them with my branch, practicing my softball skills. Although the thought of my softball team saddened me, the repetitive actions were therapeutic for my muscle memory. It was something familiar. My makeshift bat made solid connections with each pretend softball, and they soared through the air, landing a good 250 feet or less away. This lasted for several minutes until I decided to do something different. Dropping the branch, I approached a random tree and started chucking the pinecones at a marked point on the trunk. The cones made loud _thunks,_ whenever it hit the trunk head on. I kept throwing and throwing until the motion started to hurt my shoulder and elbow. _I was known to have bit of a side-arm._

A loud snap sounded behind me.

I quickly picked the branch off the ground and whipped it around, my body in the perfect hitting stance. It landed on the intruder with a _SMACK_! My eyes widened.

"Ah! Minato! I am so sorry! That was my bad." I frantically apologize as I realized Minato stood in front of me, forearm raised in a block against my "attack." He tilted his head to the side in consideration.

"Can you do that again? Attack me." I looked at him in confusion, but did as he asked. I set my feet, rotated my hips, and swung the branch as hard as I could. Before I could blink, Minato grabbed the end of the thick stick and gave it a hard twist. My firm grip on the branch betrayed me and forced my body to go into a whirlwind twist mid-air with my sensei's harsh motion.

Air forced its way from my lungs as I landed harshly on the ground. Hopping right back up, I glared at the smirking man across from me.

"What the hell was that for?" I snarled at him. His smirk only widened.

"Oh, I was just thinking how useless that stick would be in an actual battle. Add on to the fact that it was wielded by you, and the image is just pitiful," he scoffed. I could practically feel the steam escaping my ears as I listened to his bullshit. Briefly, in the back of my head, I realized Minato was doing this so I could successfully release some steam. _How fortunate for me that it was working._

In hindsight, I forgot to think about the fact that this was Minato, and that I held no candle to him. _I am going to regret this in the morning._

* * *

I sat against a tree trunk as the sun rose over the forest, shining on the beautiful village of Konoha. Lazily, I stared out over the landscape, breathing deeply, mind empty.

Minato and I spared throughout the entire night, and he obviously went easy on me. But the most memorable part to me was how he never once mentioned the incident. He probably helped my mental state more not bringing it up than if he tried to talk out my problems. When the overcast sky started to gain a pink hue, he declared that he needed to be home to manage a cranky, tired Kushina. _His words not mine if the subject ever gets brought up._ So after he left, I went to go sit where I currently still am, and tried to embrace calm.

My muscles were a satisfying sort of sore, making me feel strangely alive. I detached from my mind and focused on my surroundings: the blades of grass slicing past my fingers, birds twittering among the sky, the smell of fresh dew on the plants and the pretty sight of the Hokage building standing tall and proud in the middle of its village. Within my musings, a strange feeling enveloped me. I could feel it in my core and in the surrounding air. A new source of energy flowing in and out of my body. _Chakra…_

A soft smile settled on my face at my discovery. _Lets experiment, shall we?_ I recalled everything that I saw about what the newb ninjas first learned in the academy about chakra. First up, find a leaf and attach it to my hand, prevent it from falling off. Luckily, a bunch of leaves surrounded me so I just picked a random leaf and placed in on the back of my hand. Closing my eyes, I focused on the strange, new substance residing in my body and tried to move that energy towards my hand. Ever so slowly, I felt the chakra in my hand rise to the surface of my skin, and I felt a click.

Opening my eyes, I observed my appendage as I rotated it so the leaf was upside down. It stuck.

I jumped up with joy and shook my hand crazily in disbelief. After a while, I returned to being still and focused back on the gravity defying leaf. Slowly, I thought about retracting the chakra attached to the leaf and back to the regular circulation throughout my body. And what do you know? The leaf slowly fluttered to the ground.

"Yes!" I yelled. My hands flew up to cover my mouth in embarrassment as my shout echoed in the clearing I was in. A gitty giggle escaped my lips. I immediately brought my attention to a nearby tree, focused new energy to my feet, and sprinted up the sturdy trunk. The feeling of my form going horizontal _literally_ made my stomach flip. _Huh, the anime made this seem a lot harder. I mean, I thought with how many times Sasuke and Naruto fell that this would be more diffi-_

 _Pop_!

"Aw shit."


	7. Chapter 7

I spent the rest of the day outside practicing my chakra. That would be two days away from the house, and I was starting to get hungry. And that meant I needed to apologize to Kushina.

Over the course of today, I had been thinking about that dream. Shudders racked my body every time the horrible images popped into my brain. But that's when I realized that it was _just_ a dream. It wasn't reality. Sure, I have no clue what happened to Jim or my family when I you know...passed. But that was no excuse for me to brood over my overactive imagination. I am sure that I will continue having terrible dreams, and I am sure that I will have to live my life like I don't get restless sleep. It's the way of the shinobi, my new life.

So with that in mind, I found myself in front of Minato and Kushina's house. My fist hovered above the doorway, hesitating although I'm not sure why. Eventually, I managed to bring my clenched hand downwards into rapid knocks on the wood.

Not a second later, the door was yanked open and a flustered redhead occupied the entryway. _Kushina…_

I could tell she'd been crying. Her eyes are large and an irritated red. Her hair seemed frizzled and her daily outfit crumpled. Her brown, doe eyes stare at me wide-eyed, almost disbelieving.

"Look Kushina," I started, "I remember what I did and I want you to know that I am fine now and that I am sorry I overreacted. It was just a bad dream and I didn't want any comfort at the time." I looked up hesitantly, but was met with her confused gaze, which in turn, made me confused. _Did I say something wrong?_ Almost instantly though, her face cleared and only peace resided on her face.

"Oh Hannah..." I was swept into her strong arms and almost squeezed to death.

"Kushina," I managed to wheeze out, "I can't breath." She abruptly released me and held me at arms length, staring at me guiltily.

"Sorry about that." She patted down my hair gently, fixing the nonexistent rumples in my clothes. "And there is nothing to apologize for. We all get bad dreams sometimes, and I know that they can be somewhat traumatic at times. But I am always here for you. Minato, Kakashi and I are always here for you to talk things out. Alright?"

"Alright," I had no intention of telling her that I hate talking about my feelings with people, even if they are nice anime characters that I bonded with through a screen, "but what do you mean Kakashi? Why would I ev-"

"Hey girls!" An optimistic voice interrupted me. I turned to glare at the person who cut off my question, but softened my face when I saw the beaming smile on Minato's face. I didn't forget his kind actions. _I mean how could I? It was basically yesterday!_

"Hi."

"Heya!"

"Yo.'

I took in the three bodies that emerged from behind sensei's body, and a slight smile overtook my face as I saw my temporary teammates. I nodded in acknowledgment towards two of the more responsible genin of the team. _Not that I don't like them and want to avoid them, It's just that we are more like acquaintances and they have a sliver of my respect. Only acquired from the show._

I released a squeal when Obito's goggles suddenly appeared in front of my face, really inside my personal bubble.

"Whassup Hannah-chan? How have ya be-oof!" Obito lips puckered like a fish when a burst of air forced its way from his lungs, my fist in his gut being the almighty catalyst.

"Remember Obito, too close. And I've been good thanks for asking," I gave the wheezing boy on the floor a closed eye smile, and received a shaky thumbs-up in response. "Well it's getting dark and I'm hungry so let us eat!" My stomach agreed with my statement as I breezed past Kushina and into the house. I didn't truly know if I was welcomed back, so I decided the best option was to act naive in hope that things would go back to normal. My hope became somewhat true.

Kakashi had dashed off right when I entered the house, and I could faintly hear Rin and Obito declining to join us for dinner. _It was going to be just Kushina, Minato and I tonight I guess_. Quietly, Minato and I sat down at the dining table, and we watched Kushina, in various degrees of amusement, as she rushed back and forth in the kitchen trying to heat dinner back up. It seemed pretty normal for me.

"Hey Hannah?" I turned to look at Minato, eager for his question. He folded his hands atop the table and an contemplating expression crossed his face. _Boy does he look business like._ "I was just wondering where you learned how to swing a branch like you did last night? It's quite an uncommon style of fighting, especially around Konoha." He looked at me expectantly.

"Oh that," I scoffed. "It wasn't supposed to be a style of fighting. In fact, it was part of a game that I used to play back home. And have to say I was pretty good at it."

Minato's face suddenly filled with surprise that he quickly tried to mask, but it was still beneath the surface. Confusion entered my brain at this, until I realized what I had just said. _Oh, he's just surprised that I mentioned something from home. Guess I do never talk about it._ I tried not to let his expression bother me though.

"Oh ok!" he over eagerly responded. "But by seeing your form and strength in that field, I thought it would've been some form of sword technique." _I only wish I could wield swords. That would be so cool!_ "So I'm gonna take you to the weapons shop tomorrow and buy you any sword you want." _If I could've had any weapon back home I would've gotten a sword. I mean, the weapon matched what my favorite book character preferred, and I just like swinging things around. What a second? Did he say he would buy me sword?_

It took awhile for me to remove myself from my thoughts and process the new information given to me. _Minato's gonna buy me a sword. Minato's gonna buy me a sword!_ A big grin plastered itself on my face, and I bet even my eyes had some sparkle to it. My legs launched me out of my seat and I wrapped my arms around Minato's neck in a big bear hug. My body was basically draped across the table, but I felt my sensei's strong arms wrap around my torso, returning the hug. His chuckles reverberated in his chest, and I heard the warm, deep sound in my awkward position.

I looked up from the hug to see Kushina, for once, frozen in the kitchen holding an empty pot in her hand. She had a soft smile on her face, and the image looked so serene. I returned her smile, and slowly pulled away from Minato, giving him one last big grin before plopping myself back into my seat.

The rest of dinner was filled with our excited chatter. The food was, of course, delicious, and the conversations were trivial but a reprieve from the seriousness of my situation. Almost all too soon, we finished our meal. The two lovebirds quickly made their way to their bedroom, leaving me alone in the living room. It crossed my mind that with how they were looking at each other, I might want to make myself scarce for the night. _That reminds me, I wonder when Naruto is gonna come into the picture?_

I exit the house and walk aimlessly down the streets, no particular direction in mind, but still with the same train of thought.

 _Ok, so if I recall Naruto's birthday is the Kyuubi attack which is October 10. Pregnancy is nine months, so according to my calculations the, insemination haha, should be around January. Cool, now I just need to find out today's date. This will definitely help me get a grip on the timeline._

I observed my surroundings, hoping I could spot a calendar in somebody's shop window _._ As I looked, chills unexpectedly ran up my spine. _Gosh I must've walked through a ghost._ I continue my search, but the unnerving sensations never abated.

I huffed in frustration, whipping my head around to glare at the surrounding rooftops.

"Get your ass down here Kakashi! Stop with the perving!" I screamed. My voice echoed throughout the abandoned street, but no response; only the sound of the whispering wind and sleeping civilians reached my ears. My red eyes looked demonic as a glint suddenly entered them, and I quickly rotated once again, this time a subject in front of me took the brunt of my stabbing stare.

Kakashi stood in front of me in his ninja glory, answering my glare with an unaffected smirk. Arms crossed across his chest, he scoffed at my scare tactic.

"Oh please, get rid of that thing. And I am not a perv," he defended. I lost my angry face and instead gained a cocky smile of my own. I crossed my arms in mockery, at which his eyes narrowed and he uncrossed his to dangle by his side.

"Not yet," I pointed out knowingly. _Oh you just wait for Jiraiya, Kakashi my boy._ With that, I walked off, continuing my search for a calendar and leaving a confused Kakashi behind. I had no doubt in my mind that he would follow. _Maybe it's too cruel of me to dangle information in his face. On second thought, the bastard deserves it._

"What do you mean by that?" Kakashi asked as he suddenly appeared to the right of me, matching my quick pace with his long strides.

"Oh nothing," I reply coyly. He grunts, annoyed at my response. We continue walking, silence stretching between us, but surprisingly, it isn't awkward. It's only when we reached a crossroads and I still haven't seen a calendar that I broke the silence. _Guess I have to ask him now._

Stopping, I turned towards my stalker, him raising an sculpted eyebrow in question.

"What is the date today?" I asked. He looked at me like I was crazy, but he can't blame me for not knowing the date!

"It's January 18. But how could you not know the date?" he responds incredulously.

"Excuse me, but must I remind you that I was thrown into this world so it is perfectly reasonable that I don't know the date." _I swear I could see a smile through his mask._

"Alright then," he continues, "so is that why you were out here? And what's with the creepy smile?" He was right; I probably did portray a creepy smile that I wasn't really trying to repress.

"Yes I'm out here cause I was looking for a calendar," I look Kakashi dead in the eyes, "but I was initially out here because I didn't want to hear the noises of Minato and Kushina's love making."

An evil smile graced my face as Kakashi suddenly sputtered and a tomato colored blush erupted on his cheeks. _I can't take it._ I burst out laughing, holding my stomach as the guffaws racked my diaphram. I couldn't stop. Every time I looked at Kakashi's mortified face, it's just too precious.

"Alright you can stop now," Kakashi said with a glare. _Now I don't know if his cheeks are red from embarrassment or anger._ Slowly, I started to calm down, standing up straight.

"You know what this means right?" He glares at me. "This is most likely the night where your sensei's sperm shall be successful and _penetrate_ his lover's egg." Kakashi looked at me in disgust and I couldn't help my goofy smile and snicker.

"And you thought I was the pervert," he scoffed.

"Oh honey, I'm not a pervert but I do make perverted jokes. Get used to it." I gave him a cheeky smile at which he glared at. _Oh I'm gonna have so much fun. He doesn't know half of what I can conjure up._

An evil giggle escaped my mouth and Kakashi gave me a blank look. I quickly shut down my face in an effort to look completely innocent. Don't think it convinced him though.

"Alright," he started off, "you are out here because your house was...occupied." He looked at me for confirmation. I nod in agreement.

"Yes Minato and Kushina were having sex continue." Kakashi shot me another glare, but still continued.

"So why were you looking for a calendar? What to you gain from knowing the date?" I gave him a thoughtful look. _I have so many responses for that, I don't know which to choose. Ah, I'll probably tease him some more._

"You wanna make a bet?"

"That has nothing to do with my question."

"I know, but humor me." Kakashi gave me a brief nod. "Alrighty! Let's bet when the two lovebirds are going to have their baby. Closest person to the date wins whatever the victor wants." He gave me a bewildered stare, which was totally understandable because it _was_ such a weird bet. But, surprisingly, he once again nodded in agreement.

A smirk appeared on my face and I stuck my hand out for the binding handshake. Kakashi gripped my hand firmly, and we both glared into each other's eyes.

"October 3." _I guess he was a genius in math as well_. _Can't fault him for his quick mind._

"October 10."

"Deal."

"Let the game begin!"


	8. Chapter 8

Kakashi and I literally did nothing for the rest of the night. Of course I couldn't go back to the house, but I was so damn bored and tired. Halfway through the night, I decided to go nap on what will soon be Shikamaru's hill. I vaguely remembered the direction it was in, and the thought that it might be on Nara lands and the deer would attack me for trespassing crossed my mind but I quickly dismissed it. _Damn the consequences,_ I thought, _this bitch tired af!_ Another reason I wasn't so worried was because Kakashi stuck with me.

Which was insanely creepy. He just walked silently behind me, his only excuse for not leaving was because I was too weak to defend myself incase I got attacked in the middle of the night, and he didn't want to get a beating from Minato-sensei in the morning. I call bullshit! He was worried about me. And that was the only reason for me not teasing him...too much. There is only so much you can expect from me.

I practically bounced around him as we walked, talking about the most random things. I believe one moment I attempted to braid his hair, but my hand never made it within 3 feet of his soft, gray locks before a gloved hand slapped it out of the air.

One thing about me is that when I get tired, and I mean dead tired, I start acting like a 3 year old. No joke, I will start talking in a baby voice. But it's all because I am running on fumes. I think it annoyed Kakashi to a new level, he even broke his silent treatment to scream at me to shut up! Which in my delirious state I found pretty funny.

So eventually, we made it to the hill, no deer attacks thankfully. That was all I remembered before I completely passed out on the soft grass. Don't know if Kakashi slept on the hill with me or not, because when I awoke the sun was just rising in its orange glory, and I was alone. A sharp pang stabbed my chest at the thought of loneliness, being all alone in a kill or be killed world, no family to lean on anymore...

I quickly shook away that thought, locking it in the back of my brain. Afterwards, I made my way back to the village and to the house where I could see Kushina and Minato making a sizzling breakfast through the exposed window.

That brings us to now, with Minato and I full of bacon and within a weapons shop, perusing the sword section. I was so excited for this trip I literally dragged Minato out of the house before he had finished fully adorning his green vest. Currently, I wanted two seperate swords that were slightly shorter than katanas. I didn't know exactly what they were called; I was just looking for a pair of swords that looked exactly like something from my favorite book series back home. The protagonist was a badass assassin that fought with these swords, and so I wanted to become just like her. _Don't tease me about her being a fictional character she is very inspiring as a character!_

Minato turned to me, an amused expression on his face as he observed my concentrated gaze. I _would_ find the perfect swords. He asked me what I wanted, and I barely breathed as I rushed out an explanation of what they should or needed to look like. Minato absorbed this information with ease, and immediately relayed it back to the shop owner to get some help.

"Hold on a second please. I might have just the thing." The middle-aged man smiled politely, and his beer belly jiggled slightly as he jogged into the back room. Minato waited patiently at the counter while I continued browsing.

The metallic gleam of the blades was almost hypnotic to me. But I couldn't choose just any blade, it had to stand out from the rest.

The shop owner returned rather quickly, and I eagerly walked over to the counter, anxious to see what he brought me. He gently placed a fairly large black bag on the countertop and slowly brought out the swords, almost teasingly slow. By the time he revealed the sword in all its glory I was a fidgeting mess. But that changed rather quickly.

As I gazed upon the sword, my limbs stopped shaking and an unnatural stillness conformed my body. The blade gleaned an otherworldly white, a perfect contrast to the pitch black handle. At first glance, my mind immediately imagined it as the sword version of the yin and yang symbol. It was ironic how the sharpest part of the blade, used for the purpose of maiming and killing a human being, was such an angelic white. But at least it was balanced by the midnight handle that was so dark, it seemed to absorb all surrounding light. The entire thing was a beautiful piece of craft, and Minato and the shopkeeper looked at me expectantly.

"Eh, it's alright."

The calm spell was quickly broken as the two men both sweat dropped at my nonchalance.

"Oh come on Hannah," Minato started, "would this sword be good enough at least? Until you find the one you love?" I glanced back at the sword. It wasn't that I hated it; in fact, I thought the sword was beautiful. But there was a nagging in my gut telling me that there was something else out there, waiting for me to discover it.

However, it was kind of perfect, so I'll try it out. I gave my agreement to Minato, and we finally left the store after he paid. He didn't let me see the price tag, although I am surely going to pay him back.

We immediately headed to the training fields. The sky was overcast and I looked at it warily, expecting a downpour any minute and I really did not want to train in the rain. Because I know that training with Minato-sensei stops for nothing. _Ugh!_

Minato told me to take some practice swings with the new blade while he went around and set random objects on top of tree stumps. The thought process was to familiarize myself with the sword on stationary threats before the threats began moving.

So I set up before the first stump, an innocent red apple sitting in the middle. Going off of instinct, because I have no formal training whatsoever, I swung the sword down in a graceful arc. At first, it didn't look like anything had happened. Disappointment slowly encroached in my mind. However, after a few seconds, the top half of the apple slowly slid off at an angle, plopping on the ground. _Goddamn that's a sharp blade!_

I gave a cheesy grin to Minato-sensei as he observed, and he returned it with a small grin, amused at my amazement.

"Again," he ordered. And I did. Moving from tree stump to tree stump, I cut through each item, until there were none left. When I looked back down the line of stumps, my eyes widened in astonishment as I saw all the things still sitting pristinely on the trunks. I shot a glare at Minato. The innocent little bastard was lounging in a tree, reading a book.

"What are you looking at me for?" he shot a sly glance at me over the pages of his book, "I thought I told you to cut through all the objects, yet they're all still there. Get to it Hannah." I let out a huff and moved to begin the process all over again.

Just as I was about to flick my wrists, effectively chopping the twig on the stump, a dagger whizzed by my thumb. I released a hiss at the sudden pain, stopping my motion. Looking down, a paper thin line of blood welled up on the side of my left hand. As I looked at it, another burst of pain attacked my thigh and I gritted my teeth to inhibit the shout wanting to escape. I glared at the culprit in the tree.

"Better get faster if you don't want to look like a pin cushion," Minato stated simply, and with a flick of his wrist another kunai scratched my cheek. I didn't need another reminder.

I raced through the tree stumps, chopping and cutting swiftly. Again and again, Minato-sensei reset the items and continued throwing kunai at me, steadily getting faster. I kept doing that for the rest of the day, and only when the sun fully disappeared behind the horizon did Minato let me stop.

I immediately collapsed to the ground, heaving my lungs trying to get enough air. I was vaguely aware of Minato approaching me and asking if I was alright, but I wasn't sure. Multicolored dots invaded my vision and my hearing sounded like I was underwater. I could still hear Minato's frantic voice asking if I was alright, but everything was muffled.

"I'm fine," I said. Even my voice sounded weird inside my head.

Ever so slowly, I came back to my senses. I sat up on the grass, and looked at Minato who was crouched in front of me with a worried expression. I shifted my gaze to the right of him and was surprised to see a brooding Kakashi standing a few feet back, but still staring at me with dead eyes.

"Uh, why is creepy scarecrow here? And I'm fine btw." I hopped to my feet, and the boys quickly tensed and took a step forward, almost as if I would fall. "Guys I'm fine. I'm not gonna fall." I tried giving them a calming smile, but all it seemed to do was anger them.

Minato glared at me. "Hannah, you are obviously not alright because it looked like you were about to pass out. You didn't respond to my calls for five minutes! How is that supposed to show your okay?" _Oh shit, I never want to face a mad Minato ever again. I'm glad I didn't piss myself!_

"Minato I'm alright," I raised my hands pleasantly, "everything was under control. I've had enough experience with this to know how to handle the situation."

"You've experienced this before?" I glanced at Kakashi who now looked at me with a guarded expression. _At least I can handle his anger._

"I'm fine idiot," I scoffed and rolled my eyes, trying to brush off the question after I realized my little slip up. I bent down and picked up my new sword that had fallen on the ground next to my form and slid it into the scabbard. With hesitant steps, I slowly walked away, hoping to escape the Minato wrath.

With tentative steps, I managed to escape Minato's grabbing range and sprinted away. I was about halfway through the village before I was startled by an angered yell. _Holy hell, I almost forgot the rules of the anime-world. Sound travels really far for a humorous effect or to add suspense. Ha!_

Only a small pain stabbed my chest at the slight innuendo of myself being away from home, but I brushed it off. I was proud of myself for not getting hung up on that fact, I was improving. But now that I escaped the clutches of a pissed sensei, I had another errand to run.

I didn't slow my pace as I power walked through the town and to the hospital. My face flinched in a grimace as the iconic hospital, sterilized smell assaulted my nose as I entered the building. The exhausted nurse dragged his eyes up to meet mine as I approached the information desk, halting his daily tasks. _Just a quick little question and then I can be out of this blinding jail._

"Hello my name is Hannah, no last name, and I wanted to know the progress of my cure." I stated bluntly. I know that this guy wanted no small talk and just wanted the day to be over quicker. I wouldn't waste his time.

His blank gaze returned to the files held loosely in his wrinkled hands. The pale flesh clumsily searched through each file until he apparently found a matching name. The gray eyes of despair, as my overactive imagination described them, flicked back to me.

"Hannah...uhhhhh...another week," he mumbled almost incoherently. Luckily, my hearing managed to pick it up and I gave a nod in thanks, quickly departing. _Nature's smell never smelt so refreshing._

I began strolling through the streets, no true destination. _Alright well I'm done for the day. The moon's out and no stores are open, but I'm pretty scared to return to the house and face Minato._ A shudder coursed through me as another thought hit me. _Oh my glob, he probably told Kushina. I didn't wanna face the Red Hot Habanero just yet!_

With that thought in my head, I secretly passed by the house, lights blazing from inside, signalling the waiting people inside. Away from the lights of the town, the night slowly became beautiful. The stars twinkled mischievously in the dark sky and the stereotypical, almost expected, chirps and croaks of crickets and frogs permeated the air.

 _Thump!_

 _Oh come on!_

"What the hell do you want now Kakashi!" I screeched out as said boy dropped out of nowhere in front of me. I would never admit to the girly squelishness that may or may not have entered my voice at the surprise entrance. He stared at me intensely, and I quickly started to fidget as the gaze became uncomfortably long. Then he leaned forward until his face just brushed the edge of my red hair. I shivered as I felt his breath ghost across my neck, the feeling was incredibly awkward but not overall unpleasant. The weird moment broke, however, when I heard him sniff my neck.

"What the actual fuck Kakashi! Did you just sniff me?" I shoved Kakashi away from me and directed my best death glare at him, crossing my arms across my chest. He copied my defensive stance.

"Why do you smell like the hospital? You are perfectly healthy," he cockily replied. My protests stuttered to a stop. _Damn, those dog traits are really good. Maybe I should start calling him my little pooch!_

"Well...you see I was just stopping by to see a comrade, that I met in passing and ya…they were in the hospital." I stared blankly at him. He stared blankly at me. We both knew I was lying, and honestly? It wasn't that big of a deal to me so if he finds out the truth it isn't a big deal. Doesn't mean that I can't make him work for it though.

"Oh ya? What's their name?"

"Um, Bob."

"Bob?"

"Yes, Bob."

"You're lying." He said, taking a step forward. _No shit Sherlock._ Physically, I just rolled my eyes, not denying his conclusion. "Now, why are you lying to me?" He cocked his head to the side adorably in curiosity. _What the hell? Adorable? Did I really…_

"If I'm lying, you're just going to have to ask the right questions until your curiosity is satisfied," I replied coyly. He huffed in exasperation. Rolling his eyes into the back of his skull, he said,

"Why are you lying to me?"

"Why dear Kakashi, because I can and it's fun to tease you." He sighed.

"Ok, why did you go to the hospital?"

"Because," I stalled, "I had to check up on something."

"And what was that something?" He raised a delicate eyebrow in questioning, knowing he had me. The tips of my ears went red, but I did my best to keep my face neutral. However, before I could answer the all-knowing question, Minato decided to have the best timing in the world and suddenly poof in between the bastard and I. But it wasn't a happy reunion.

Minato's face was beet red and his eyes were sharper than his three-pronged kunai as he glared down at my embarrassed self. He even snarled and growled in my direction.

"Well my students," he begrudgingly began, "we have our first mission outside the village. Hannah, we will have a little chat when we get back, but for now, get your stuff packed and meet at the village gates in 30 minutes." With that said, and a final glare, he vanished leaving Kakashi and I alone again.

We looked at each other, agreeing silently to finish the conversation, although a little hesitant on my part. With our silent sentence down, we ourselves vanished in a burst of smoke planning on packing quickly.

The thought running through my mind was, _Oh my glob! My first mission!_


	9. Chapter 9

I have never been happier to be assigned a mission than at this moment. _Oh thank the almighty Hokage for sensing and tending to my needs!_ The assignment prevented Minato from cornering me into a dark alleyway and carving the answer to his questions out of my throat. _Wow, that was pretty dark._ In any case, Minato was still pissed that I didn't confide in him, which involuntarily filled me with a warm feeling, but I tried to squash it.

"So what's our mission sensei?" Rin asked sweetly.

The entire team had met at the gate within 30 minutes. All except Obito who was running late. I wasn't that surprise by that fact. Not just because I knew he was always tardy from the anime, but I myself was almost late. Let's just say I have an issue with over packing. You do not want to be the zipper on my backpack right now because you would be breaking a sweat.

"Well we were assigned to go to a neighboring village, collect a man and escort him to another village." Minato eventually gritted out when he broke his intense gaze on my form. I did my best to ignore it.

"What village?" Kakashi curtly asked. Our sensei opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off by a distant screeching. We all turned to the direction of the path leading into Konoha to see a dust cloud steadily approaching. I squinted my eyes. _Obito?_

"Wait for me guys!" He yelled. In no time at all, the Uchiha was standing directly in front of us, panting slightly. "I'm here!" Obito cheered, "we can go now." I giggled at the childness of it, but Kakashi scoffed and muttered an insult under his breath. I clopped the back of his head for it. No fret.

"Alright, let's go."

* * *

The journey to the Doro village was uneventful. It was an hour trip for us ninja in the treetop, which didn't involve the time my team took to teach me _how_ to tree hop. They forgot the little fact that I was new to the chakra thing, so after a bunch of glares and bruises from falling, I managed to, actually pretty quickly, learn the desirable skill set.

On the actual path, the only exciting thing that occured was Obito and I's discussion. Sure he was a big goofball, but it was adorable and he contained so many interesting thoughts. Our topics ranged from his outfit to how much acorns chipmunks could fit into their mouths. I humored him on the latter.

When we reached the village, I was just about to tease Obito about his crush on Rin. I had easily detected the sly peaks he took at the kunoichi to ensure she was safe as we traveled, and once again, _adorable_! But he got off lucky.

"Follow me guys and don't stray far. This town seems pretty shifty," Minato instructed.

"Did you say shitty?"

"No Hannah. I said shifty."

"Ok well then I say this town is shitty." I got a nice chuckle from Obito, giggle from Rin and glare from Kakashi for my comedic efforts. _Well you can't get them all._ But I wasn't wrong about the village.

The front entrance was an arbour constructed of twigs and leaves, a nice little sign stabbed into the ground next to it reading Doro village. This was a complete guess because I can't read Japanese or Kanji, or whatever the anime uses. The houses inside the walls were basically domes of mud compacted very firmly. Hopefully, that material could survive rain really well, which I assumed was true because the roads were a sopping mud bath. The village seemed to have a recent downpour.

I grimaced as the road sucked at my shoes, the popping sound as I wrangled my foot from their grasp every time was almost nauseating. My teammates didn't seem to struggle as much as me though, only splatters of mud slinging onto them while my lower half was almost coated. I glared at the road ahead, trying to discover how they did it. _Oh my god I'm stupid._ Of course they were flowing chakra into their feet so that they could walk on top of the mud!

With my newfound information, I focused on the flow of energy within. It felt like thick water, but still containing an airy lightness. I embraced the energy and gently pointed it towards my feet. I felt myself rise just the slightest until I was walking above the road, and happiness overcame me. Nobody noticed my accomplishment, but I sure as hell was proud of myself.

We silently continued past multiple mud domes, the civilians parting for us as they went about their daily business. Minato eventually stopped before a shack, the planks of wood acting as the walls, forced together with mard-packed mud. He approached the entrance, but before he could knock the door flung open and a man stumbled out, muttering nonsense under his breath.

We stood still as the man finished locking his door. And when he aggressively turned around, Minato had the impeccable timing to state a nice hello. The guy's eyes bulged in surprise, a comedic expression adorning his face.

"Good afternoon Hayashi," Minato repeated, "we are the shinobi you hired to escort you to the Kisaragi village. Are you ready to go?" The now identified Hayashi snapped out of his shocked state, straightening his ragged coat.

"Of course I'm ready," he scoffed, "I was almost about to leave without you! You guys almost made me late!" His scrawny form shook with his pitiful anger. In reality, my team was 2 hours earlier than the formulated meeting time, but none of us mentioned that. With a huff, he set off down the road, dragging his wragged suitcase on the muddy earth. I wrinkled my nose in distaste for the arrogant client, but followed Minato dutifully when he automatically caught up with his charge.

The travel there was the opposite of when we arrived-completely silent. Granted, the client was really keeping us busy because he would always dart off into an unknown direction. After 50 efforts of saying that only he knows the true path to the village and that we were all stupid so follow him, I just got fed up with chasing after him, so I continued strolling on the marked path while the rest pursued him. _Guess I need to find that shinobi mindset. But I don't give two shits right now._ Unluckily for me, my "laziness" set me up for something worse than an unruly client.

The sound of my footsteps sung in harmony with the birds chirping in the trees. My hooded gaze was bored as I observed the foliage lining the path, which had thankfully dried in the sun so it was no longer a pig sty. It honestly surprised me when the overcast clouds seemed to flick a switch and transform into blue skies. I could hear the frustrated screams of Obito in the distance, as well as Rin's shouting at him to calm down. Imagining the situation made me chuckle slightly.

 _Hiiiisssssssssssss!_

The unnatural sound brought my musings to a halt. My head whipped around, searching for the source. It was so at contrast with the beautiful scenery that it brought a chill down my spine. _This is not the normal sound of a snake._

The noise increased in volume suddenly, so loud it sounded like it was right next to my ear. I quickly drew my sword, the black grip in my hand slightly comforting. I kept whirling around trying to find the threat but coming up short every time. I was steadily becoming more frantic and my urge to run to Minato-sensei was increasing. _Actually, that doesn't sound like a bad idea._

With that thought, I shot off the path and into the forest, depending on Obito's obnoxious voice to guide me to safety. But before I set one foot onto lush grass, something wrapped around my waist, stopping my momentum mid-air. The object strangled my stomach, jerking me back into the open and onto the ground.

I landed harshly, breath knocked out of me. The rope, I assumed, slithered off of me as tension released, and I took the opportunity to hop back up and faced my attacker, my angelic swords at the ready.

My assailant released a deep chuckle. The man that stood across from me looked slightly crazy, garbed in the typical outfit you would see of a heavy-metal rock fanatic. The look was complete with a big mohawk, black eyeliner, black lipstick and hanging chains. But I didn't see any evidence of whatever rope tackled me.

"Oh hello little lady!" the man screeched, eyes going wonky with insanity, "man your blood just smells delicious! I wanna taste of that red liquid ya!" Curiosity tugged on my brain. _When did I start bleeding and where?_ I didn't dare let the fanatic leave my sight however to check. I'm assuming I must've injured myself when I was yanked onto the ground. Speaking of which, I still couldn't identify where he was keeping that rope weapon of his.

I startled when the man threw his head backwards in laughter. But his neck stretched to such an abnormal length that his head ended up to his mid-back. _What the actual fuck! Is he like an Orochimaru prototype! At least I know that he can probably do that with the rest of his body, so his limbs might've been that rope,_ my overactive imagination supplied.

"I guess I'll just have to catch you!" he taunted. My eyes expanded at his statement, and my heart almost burst out of my chest when he sprinted towards me. I prepared my sword, face set in determination. I may not have had pretty much _any_ training, but I sure as hell wasn't going down without a fight.

He laughed in his quick approach, jabbing a fist at my wrist. I flicked my hand sharply to prevent my sword being knocked out of my hand, aiming the sharp blade at the incoming flesh.

A disturbing sound permeated the air and for a second, I thought I had chopped his hand off. My head whipped down to check the damage. _It's too early to see my first amputated limb!_

Somewhat fortunate, his hand was intact. Except his hand stretched and looped around the white metal of my sword. The sound must've been his bones breaking and reforming. The thought disgusted me. _At least I'm right though._

I sharply pulled my right hand back to my side, retrieving my blade before his snaking hand could grasp the handle. At the same time, my leg kicked at his stomach hoping to drive him back.

The man's left hand grabbed my ankle, grip tighten painfully. The action caused me to be dreadfully off balance. Channeling chakra to my foot, I pushed off his body, breaking free from his hold and doing a few backflips to increase our distance. But it was all in vain.

When my feet were barely planted on the ground, his personal ropes were already chasing me. I grunted in irritation. Crouching low, I swung my sword around just like I had the previous day in practice.

Despite my crisp aim, he was simply too fast for me. The lengthy appendages danced around my blade tauntingly as the crazy fanatic approached.

Growing desperate, my only plan was to get him to fight a short range battle. _The guy is obviously a long range attacker, so maybe I'll have an advantage up close. Get within his range of motion so his stretching ability is useless._ With the split second decision made, I recklessly charged at him. He squinted in interest, whipping his arms quicker.

I dodged right and ducked low, continuing my forward attack. The whiz of a kunai alerted my ears and I barely dropped to the ground in time before the sharp blade flew past me. My throat would've been a goner without my reflexes.

However, I think the weapon was only to stop my advance and distract me. For the second I was immobile on the ground, my assailant yanked his whips upwards and dragged them back down. The momentum of gravity combined with his strength was aimed solely at me. He made direct contact.

The impact came full force on my back, pushing me harshly down into the ground and forming a small crater.

I squeezed my eyes shut at the pain. What sucks is that I know I'm running on adrenaline and if I'm hurting now then nothing will compare to when the fight ends. My eyes shot open when a loud thud sounded just in front of my face.

I regretfully scurried backwards as fast as I could, staring wide-eyed at the crazy metallica man that just appeared. His obsidian orbs squinted at me as he released a great cackle. I wasn't going to wait for him to get over his laughing fit.

Using the sword still gripped tightly in my hand, honestly not knowing how I hung onto it for this long, I flung it at the crazy man. The angelic blade enact its small vengeance as it easily pierced his shoulder, blood spouting out.

His laughter stuttered to a stop. With a confused expression, he regarded the blade within his skin and the blood pouring steadily out. His head lifted again and his gaze rested on me once more. And it was terrifying.

No longer was there a crazy glint in his eyes. Now, they were shrouded in pure malicious intent, and it was solely focused on me.

Frightened out of my mind, I scrambled upwards and out of the mini crater I had created. Seeing my movement seemed to snap the fanatic out of his craze and he swung both his arms at me.

Internally panicking, I could think of nothing. My sword was gone and I had no training. I was a sitting duck.

The snake arms were almost upon me, and my last effort plan was to grab hold of them. _If he can't utilize his main weapon then he can't get me,_ was my amazing thought process. My scratter brain didn't compute the variables that I had no weapon to physically stop his hands, I was running on pure adrenaline, I was injured gravely, and the simple fact that the man was immensely stronger than I.

The man made an irritated expression when I stopped his attack. He tugged his arms backwards, but I held firm. His second try, he yanked them backwards with seemingly all his strength. My puny form was no match for that.

My hand grip tried to stop the flesh from slipping from my grasp, but that was my ultimate downfall.

The snake arms sliced past my hands, easily escaping my hold. In the process, the vine-like appendages cut through the fragile skin of my palms like butter. My tight grip only made them worse.

The weapons eventually managed to slither back to their master. He directed a scary look at me and approached once again.

The consequences didn't hit me immediately. But when the man took one step forward, almost like the flick of a switch, the pain rushed over me, originating from my hands.

I collapsed to my knees and bellowed a startling scream. Shakily, I brought my hands forward so I could look at them, and the bloodied sight churned my stomach. I forced the vomit down my throat, the action choking me as my body kept forcing me involuntarily to scream.

My entire body was agony.

I was blind to everything except the intense misery. The sight of blood not only curdled my stomach, but revealed my most recent tragic memories.

Red encompassed my vision and my brain. The red of blood. The red of pain. The red of everything.

I didn't know how long I screeched for. It could've been seconds or hours. Things only became tangible once again when my vision returned, albeit blurred by tears. I didn't even know when I started crying.

I adjusted my eyes to accomodate for my tears, but regretted it. I choked on a sob, my voice hoarse from screaming, yet I thought I would start anew when I saw the creep a hair's width away.

He chuckled deeply as my eyes widened in fright, but I could not move. My entire body trembled in torment and terror.

"Well, it was nice while it lasted," he whispered. His tongue slithered out between his lips as they pulled into a twisted smile. The organ swiped across my sliced palms, and my mouth gaped in a silent scream.

His laughter increased its intensity as his tongue retreated back into his mouth and he tasted my blood.

But his ecstasy didn't last for long.

No sooner had his mouth closed when a black blur slammed into the side of his outlined face. It was almost the perfect comedic expression when a character got punched as spit flew out of the fanatics mouth, as well as droplets of my blood.

He flew across the path and into the trees on the other side. I tried to focus on my savior, but they shot after their prey before I could focus my pupils. The blurred person left, but immediately the bright color of yellow encompassed my vision.

It took a while, but I identified the color as hair, and below that there were a pair of seriously concerned sapphire eyes. The luminescence within those orbs trapped me. They became the only thing keeping me conscious.

Despite only seeing blue, I was still aware of my body. I felt a hand delicately cup my shaking ones, another hand resting on my shoulder. I couldn't hear anything, but within my scattered brain I made the connection that Minato stood before me. I imagined him whispering comforting words to me as he scrambled to enact a solution for this predicament.

Very briefly, my source of consciousness flickered down to observe something. The break in connection was enough to snap me out of my trance.

Darkness swept in.

The last thing I saw before the calming blackness overtook me were wide, blue eyes. The last thing I felt was a pressure on my bruising back when something supported my collapsing form. The last thing I could barely hear was,

"HANNAH!"


	10. Chapter 10

The first thing that I was solely conscious of was the excruciating pain flowing throughout my nerves. My sight was encompassed in black, but my other senses shot awake easily.

I was too tired to scream. Yet, the burning fire on my palms forced my throat to release unnatural sounds of distress. Feeling in my other body parts became known, enabling me to somewhat sense where I was.

I was sitting on something uneven but soft, a solid cushion supporting my aching back. Warm tendrils of muscle were wrapped around my shoulders, trembling heavily but holding me upright and firm. Footfalls and the sound of cabinets being flung open reached my ears. The distress within the frantic movements were clearly noticeable even with one of my senses. However, my hearing also picked up another faint noise. This noise was right next to my ear, and I diagnosed it as whispers. If what I made out were correct, they were just comforting words more attuned to the person holding me rather than myself, the one in pain. But the warmth emitting from my human support system was comforting, and I tried to relax as much as possible into my personal heater.

My back arched and I grunted as pain stabbed through my back. _Maybe I shouldn't lean back too far just yet._ My reaction elicited, what I assumed were arms, to grip my shoulders tighter and my seat adjusted themselves so that their chest was pressed closer to my back, accomplishing what I had failed to do. The relief was momentary.

My eyelids shuddered open and I tried to quickly focus my sight. My misery clouded my sight, but I was able to make out the basic shape of Minato-sensei kneeling in front of me, setting on the ground multiple bottles and a rag. Looking past him, I made out the basic colors of Obito and Rin in a doorway. Orange and blue for Obito, purple for Rin. No Kakashi.

I focused back in on Minato as his hand gripped mine, the movement jostled the nerves in an unforgiving way and I hissed. His blue eyes looked up and made contact with me. They were extremely apologetic.

"I'm sorry Hannah, but I have to clean it." His tone was solemn and he immediately looked down to continue preparation. "Kakashi hold her still," he commanded.

"Wait a sec-," I struggled to croak out, but it was all in vain as Minato started to pour a liquid on my butchered palms.

The pure _agony_ was instantaneous.

It seemed to travel to every nerve ending in my body. The worst of it was in my hands. My red eyes were blown open as my mouth stretched wide and Minato quickly slipped something into my mouth. I bit down hard on it to relieve some pressure, but it was everywhere. My only slight solace came from the growling, quivering, heated form behind me that stood firm as my legs found the strength to try and push myself away from Minato.

It seemed like hours as I struggled against Minato's actions of sterilizing and wiping clean my hands with a towel that felt like a saw blade. Hours of my legs using every ounce of strength to push away, but Kakashi behind me stayed like a rock, albeit a trembling one. At some point, my throat decided it was able to scream again, and the broken scream was shrilling in the small room we were in.

The pain was everything.

Eventually, I was able to witness Minato stop what he was doing and quickly wrap my hands in a cloth. It was only a matter of time before the intensity of the cleaning procedure achingly faded away into a sharp throb. But it was more bearable.

The room was completely silent except for my gasping breaths. Minato looked at me with sadness and a tint of fright within his eyes, but his body expression showed that he was overall relieved. As the stinging lessened, I was able to focus more on my surroundings. I was right before in that Obito and Rin stood in a doorway peering in at me over their sensei's shoulder. Flicking my eyes down, I saw black covered arms wrapped around my chest in an embrace, and I now clearly comprehended where Kakashi was. I didn't have the strength to acknowledge his presence just yet though.

It appeared that we were in some type of bathroom, for I was sitting on a countertop and saw a sink, mirror, and toilet. _Must've been the best place to wash away the blood._ I shuddered at the thought.

Returning my attention to Minato-sensei, I sent a watery smile towards him. I didn't even notice when I had started crying, but I could definitely feel the dried tear tracts crinkle as my cheeks lifted.

He returned my smile with a shy one of his own. Minato plopped his butt on the ground with a sigh, leaning against the cabinet. His head fell back so it landed with a _thunk,_ and he shut his eyes as fatigue swept in. The silence was nice.

"Hey Hannah are you alright?" Obito broke the silence as he stepped further into the bathroom. I looked up at his worried expression and smiled. I jerked my head up and down, trying to signal that _yes I am alright now_. I don't think my voice box was ready for use yet.

My successful attempt rewarded me with a beaming smile. Obito continued forward until he was right in front of me, but something brought him to a stop just before touching me. His eyes looked quickly behind me as he dropped unceremoniously to the floor, criss-cross applesauce.

"So how did you get hurt anyway?" he innocently inquired. Rin also stepped further into the room at the question and even Minato peeled open an eyelid to regard me. Despite my hesitation, I knew they deserved an answer, and so tried my best to talk.

"Th..er...re wa...aa...s thi...s g….uuuyy…" I broke off into a fit of coughs which brought pain to my lower back. My voice was how I expected. Hoarse, rough, and completely useless. Nevertheless, after my coughing subsided, I tried again. "He...ee,"

"I don't think this is the right time to ask questions," Kakashi cut me off. His voice was hard and offered no room for argument. I felt the deep baritone of the command echo from his chest into my back.

Obito looked down in mock defeat, a pout on his lips. Minato grunted in agreement.

"Ya you're right." Sensei heaved himself off the floor and approached Kakashi and I, arms outstretched towards me. "I'll take you to a room so you can rest. Kakashi, go outside and calm down."

I twisted my head around in surprise so that I could observe the masked boy. When we locked eyes, I jerked back, ignoring the brief stab of pain. _I didn't know he was so close._ Disregarding that fact, I noticed that Minato was right. Kakashi did look like a screw was loose in his brain. His face was emotionless, pretty much normal for him. But his slate eyes, looked like silver daggers as he glared at everything he could lay his eyes on. And currently, that was me.

I glared back. _No way your gonna take your anger out on me scarecrow,_ was the message conveyed with my tired eyes. Something flickered within his eyeball's cloudy depths, but before I could get a good read on it, he stood up rapidly and stomped out of the bathroom.

One little thing to notice, I was still in his fucking lap! His dramatic moody ass standing up to have a tantrum caused me to fall limp to the tiled floor! My limbs had no energy to move. But I managed to gather the strength to cradle my hands and twist slightly so that I landed on my bruised back instead of my bandaged hands. Still, the jarring sensation wasn't pleasant to say the least.

Through the pain, I could foggily hear Obito yelling at Kakashi as he followed the bastard outside and I saw Minato rushing towards me. For myself, I think I was cursing Kakashi to the heavens and back. Minato was slightly amused though, as I saw the corner of his worried lip twitching upwards. _At least I can amuse some you, but I'm still suffering here you dimwits!_

I groaned, voicing my suffering.

"Alright, let's get you somewhere safe," Minato said. I glared at him thinking, _you just thought of that!_ "Follow me Rin." With that, sensei carefully scooped me up bridal style, gentle with my back, and exited the bathroom. With Rin trailing behind us anxiously, Minato went down the hallway of what seemed like a hotel. We stopped in front of a door, not too far from what I was guessing was the communal bathroom. _Must of been a rush to get my injuries in control i guess._

Rin jutted out her hand from behind sensei and quickly unlocked the door for us, holding it open. Minato carried me inside and laid me out on the futon in the corner of the room. The walk wasn't too bad, but I definitely don't want to take another trip anytime soon. _I better get better soon or else bathrooms are going to be awkward._

"Hannah." The light voice of Rin broke me out of my thoughts and I turned my head to look at her. "I'm still an amateur healer so I can't heal something as complex as your hands, but maybe I can make the bruise on your back better?" She ended her statement in a lilt, almost as if questioning her own sound logic.

All I did was smile at her and she immediately interpreted it as yes. Her face broke into a relieved smile; she even clapped her hands giddily in excitement.

"I'm going to check on the boys then. Stay here," Minato commanded before leaving the room, shutting the door quietly behind him. _Oh I'm totally gonna pop right up and go shopping like a good jolly old fellow,_ I thought sarcastically. At least it didn't hurt my eyes to roll them.

"I'm just gonna turn you on your side then." Rin placed her soft hands on my left shoulder, pushing slowly. It was extremely uncomfortable, but we eventually managed to expose my back for her to work on.

All I saw was a green glow in my peripheral as Rin began working. I almost moaned out loud in relief as I felt her healing chakra taking effect. It was legit heaven.

I allowed Rin to work her magic on my bruises for a good ten minutes; I could feel the miniscule adjustments she was doing to my anatomy in order to heal the bruise. After we hit the ten minute mark, the boys piled into the room bringing wonderful food and more blankets to sleep on. Obito rushed in with a big pot of soup, venting loudly about his hands burning. He dropped the pot hazardlessly on the ground and continued hopping about, waving his hands around like a maniac. I smiled at his antics. Meanwhile, Minato and Kakashi brought in a butt load of bed materials and started setting them up around the room. When they were done, Minato sat in my line of sight since I was still placed on my side. He started informing me on what happened after the, in my opinion, pathetic battle.

After the team found me, Minato and Rin rushed me into the village we were initially headed to and commandeered the bathroom to sanitize my wounds quickly. Kakashi stayed behind to take care of the rock metal psycho, and Obito was charged with handling our client and finishing the mission. Apparently the guy wasn't much of a challenge for Kakashi because it barely took any time before the masked boy was back at my side to help hold me down for the cleaning. That _totally_ made me feel better about myself, having Kakashi beat the guy that did such a number on me. But I can't be too butt-hurt about it. I did just arrive in the land of the ninja and started the specialized training about...oh I don't remember how long ago. It could've been only a day but so much had happened that it could have occured in the time span of a month!

But I digress. So with me essentially caught up on everything that happened while I was blacked out, Minato, Obito, and Rin broke into some soft, idle chatter. Still turned on my side, I was only able to identify their voices with my hearing because my sight was impaired by the wall I was facing. I only heard the three voices, so assumed Kakashi was sitting against a wall behind me being his brooding self. He soon proved me wrong.

Right as I had made my assumption, the black-clad ninja gracefully placed himself in front of my face, exactly where Minato had sat only a few moments before. I raised an eyebrow in question at this weird action, waiting. _I thought he wanted nothing to do with me? Maybe he'll apologize, but that's doubtful. It's Kakashi we're talking 'bout here._

"I pity you."

 _Wow._

I glared at the imbecile before me, my internal expectations plummeted although I don't know why they were so high to begin with. _The bastard wouldn't even make eye contact with me! He kept his eyes on his fiddling hands!_

I could barely stand the sight of the boy who had the nerve to pity me. I absolutely despise the thought of being pitied. Because of this, my stupid ass decided to roll onto my other side in order to face away from the idiot. I groaned at the effort, and was happily surprised that my back was only a little bit soar. _Thank you RIn._ Nevertheless, I managed to face the room to see my other teammates doing some random shit. But I didn't have long to observe them before gentle hands gripped the sides of my arms, lifted me in the air, and turned me so that I faced _him_ again.

Kakashi laid me down in my previous position, releasing his grip as soon as possible. I was too surprised and rightly curious to object to the movement. Again, I raised my eyebrow in question.

"Don't do that, you need to rest," he said in a low tone. I looked at him weirdly, expecting more. _Is that really all he has to say?_

"Of course that's not all you idiot," he snapped after glancing briefly at me. His eyes flickered to just behind me and a look of annoyance crossed his face. _Oh that's why he's talking to me. They put him up to it._ Kakashi grunted and continued.

"I just hope you're feeling better and that your hands won't scar," he finished simply. I think my face morphed into an interesting expression because when the masked boy finally looked at me, I saw a twitch in his exposed cheek to suggest a smile. He read my expression. "No I haven't gone crazy and no you are not hallucinating and no I am not lying," he said with finality.

 _Well he got that mostly right. I think my word choice was let's say, a little more riskay._

"I know. I decided to censor you," Kakashi said cheekily. _Bastard._

"Why do you always call me that?"

 _Because you are a bastard and if I didn't call you that your next nickname might be a bit less socially acceptable. I might start calling you scarecrow or puppy, I don't know yet._

"Don't call me those other names. At least I still contain my dignity with bastard." Kakashi narrowed his eyes at my new expression. "Yes, I haven't lost my dignity you brat."

I dropped the conversation with a small chuckle, not regretting it even as it scratched my throat. _I definitely won that._ I bet my eyes shined with amusement at how the scarecrow was able to basically read my mind through my face. The feeling looked mutual as well when I caught the little sparkle in the corner of Kakashi's eyes.

We stared at each other after that, steel clashing with blood. It wasn't like our normal glaring contests, we simply gazed at each other in silent contemplation. I had no clue what Kakashi was thinking, but my mind was completely blank except for the image of the masked boy.

I bet we stared at each other for a while, I couldn't tell. As I said before, blank mind.

It, whatever _it_ was, ended when somebody made a direct cough in our direction. The noise caught Kakashi's interest and his eyes were ripped away from mine to regard the disruption. Even I twisted my head slightly to get a glimpse.

Obito and RIn were both chatting and eating the soup Obito had hazardously brought in earlier. Minato sat next to them, but was looking over at us with an amused expression. He shook his head, blond spikes flying every which way, and went back to the random conversation of his two other students,

I was quite confused with his reaction, saving a mental file of the action in my brain for later analysis. My head flopped back towards the masked boy, only to see his head resting against the wall and eyes shut tight.

He was obviously trying to rest, and obviously the conversation was over.


	11. Chapter 11

With the mission completed, thanks to Obito and his knack for helping people no matter how annoying they are, we traveled back to the village after three days. Minato decided that even though it was only my hands injured at that point, that I needed to gain some more strength before leaving. An hour long argument occurred after his decree; I didn't want to hold back the team from getting home and resting, _and_ I was perfectly fine!

But no!

Sensei always knows what's best and I am still a naive child apparently. Now, he was not only mad at me for arguing his orders, but also for not disclosing to him the reason for my hospital visits and the "situation" during training.

Have to say though, it was amusing seeing Rin, Obito, and Kakashi hiding themselves in a corner of the room while Minato and I screeched at each other. Their faces were hysterical! Anyways, I'm being mean even if I do enjoy their discomfort.

So after a tense and uneventful journey, we strolled past the gates of Konoha easily and headed our separate ways. Minato went to fill out the mission report, and the other three teammates probably went home to rest. For myself, I decided to head to the training fields. Taking an immediate right from the gates, I walked along the walls of Konoha knowing that I would eventually reach Team 7's assigned field. I still wasn't familiar with the finest geography points of _Naruto_ yet, so the wall helped guide me.

Minato kept me cooped up in the hotel room for so long and I was dying to do something at least the tiniest bit active. Although, my standard routine will have to be adjusted.

I looked down at my hands as I walk through the fields, studying the cream cloth wrapped firmly around my palms. The blood had stopped leaking through them quite quickly and the cloth was there only to prevent infection.

Focusing on my fingers, I tried to pull them into a fist. My knuckles reached 90 degrees before the stinging pain crept in. Nevertheless, I pushed the muscles in my fingers to cooperate and curl completely. At this point, my teeth grinded together in an attempt to abide the pain and my legs quivered as I continued to walk through green grass. I briefly felt my nails apply pressure to the cloth before the pain became overwhelming, and my muscles refused to move further.

I controlled my breath as I exhaled and unfolded my hands. This was a serious set back to practically anything. _There is so much stuff you do with your hands and now I can't do any of it! Train? Nope. High-fives? Absolutely not. Eat food? It was just made ten times harder! Speaking of food, I'm hungry._

I focus on my surroundings, finally acknowledging that I've arrived at the training grounds. My slight enthusiasm decreased to nothing. _Not only can I not train, but there is no food here to eat!_

I growled in frustration and started marching over to a tree. _Poor tree doesn't know what's coming._

I began kicking the tree with all my might. My form was horrendous and I was probably going to injure myself even more, but I didn't care. The trunk shook slightly with each beating, the leaves quivered violently until they eventually fell down to the ground. It wasn't long before my anger ran out and I just stood in front of that tree, breathing heavily.

"Oh what youthful might! You, my dear cherry blossom, are an inspiration for beauty and strength!" I released a screech and fell on my ass, hands cradled in front of me so there was nothing stopping my descent. My eyelids shot open and I got a very close vision of an energetic face. _Oh my god, it's Might Guy! Can't tell if I'm gonna fangirl or be annoyed._

"Umm… …" I tried to stutter out some recognizable words, but his appearance shocked me so much that words flew right out of my head.

"Beautiful flower! I am so sorry for startling you so! No pretty flower's face should become frightened! Here, let me help you up!" Guy reached for my hands to help pull me up, as I just sat on the ground, hands cradled in front, unsure if I heard him right cause my ears were still ringing.

"Uh...I'm sorry but what did you say? What are you doing? Wait a sec! Don't!" He finally grasped my hands and was pulling me up, shining his million watt tooth-smile.

I bit my lip hard, forcing the scream of pain back down my throat even as tears pricked my eyes. After Guy got me standing, he still maintained his grasp on my hands. All I wanted to do was pull out of his grip, but knew with how firm said grip was, the action would not come without painful consequences.

"My lady, what's wrong?" Guy asked in, finally, a normal volume. My eyes, which had been glued to my hands, finally rose to meet his concerned gaze. I was really grateful for his concern, but at this point I didn't really care.

"I need you to let go of my hands," I responded in a low voice. He tilted his head to the side in confusion and leaned closer to me.

"What did you say?" he asked. A glare glinted into my gaze as I stared at him, and I saw him briefly flinch. I opened my mouth to repeat what I said, albeit more forcefully, but got rudely interrupted.

"She said to let her go you idiot!" a familiar voice snarled. In barely a second, Guy was flying across the clearing after a black blur rammed into him. I snapped my hands back in towards my body, automatically checking the damage and if there was any. I saw red bleeding through the bandages and I let out the smallest of whimpers.

Instantly, a warm body was in front of me, reaching out to gently pull my hands towards them. My gaze followed the small movement of my blood, mesmerized by the color as memories started surfacing.

"Hey," a soft voice said. A gloved hand gently pushed my chin upwards so I was looking at the person in front of me, rather than getting caught in the sight of my blood. Kakashi's face was soft with concern as he observed me. "Just look at me. Okay?" I may have acknowledged him, I don't know, but he soon turned his attention to my hands. I remained entranced by Kakashi's face. _There's no wall up._

He gently unwrapped the bandages to reveal that the cuts had indeed opened. Swiftly, he threw the old wrappings on the ground and pulled fresh bandages almost out of nowhere, efficiently wrapping my hands once again.

"You know," I started softly as I watched him work, "I could've taken care of Guy myself. I don't need no knight in shining armour." He stiffened slightly, momentarily halting his actions. He tilted his head back to meet my gaze, and I narrowed my eyes as I saw the twinkle in his eyes. _That's a suspicious look. Almost like he knows something I don't…_

"I know," he responded and he continued wrapping my hands, "but you know how he is." His eyes flickered up to my face briefly before going back to my hands. My gaze narrowed further.

"Yay…" I started unsure, "Guy probably would've started jumping up and down in joy, and screaming in my ear again. I don't know how anybody can get used to it." I watched as Kakashi finished with my hands and took a step back, crossing his arms. I swear I saw him smile underneath his mask.

"And you know so much about Guy's natural behavior now don't you?" he questioned. _Ah that was a loaded question. Shit, did I goof up?_

"What are you insinuating?" I demanded.

"How do you know his name?"

"Because it is Might Guy, hard to miss him."

"But that was your first encounter with him."

"So?"

"He never told you his name," Kakashi stated cockily. _Shit._

"So now you're stalking me?" I fired back, trying to get the attention off me.

"That is not relevant to the discussion," Kakashi took a step closer to me, "now how do you know who Guy is again?" he questioned innocently.

I stood stoically under the interrogation, despite my breathing turning perhaps a bit too heavy. My mind raced to find a proper excuse, and I latched onto the best response possible.

"I overheard Obito describing you and Guy's long standing rivalry. And from the detailed description Obito was giving, it only prompted further assumptions about Guy's personality." I locked into Kakashi's silver gaze determined not to let him intimidate me. _That was a pretty decent excuse...wasn't it?_ Apparently, it was not, or the scarecrow could just read me very well because not too soon after my ears picked up his incredulous scoff.

"That's bullshit," he stated. I raised a slender eyebrow in question.

"Is it though?" _Fake it 'till you make it, right ladies and gents?_

A rumbling came from Kakashi's chest; I watched, amused, as he tried to contain the frustrated growl I knew he wanted to release. I raised my eyebrows in an expression of innocent surprise as I placed the back of my hand against his chest, right on the collarbone to feel the gentle grumblings.

"Feeling a little frustrated aren't you pup?" I smirked as I felt him still under my delicate touch. He glared at me, and I could see his mouth move underneath his mask as he opened it to reply.

But the chance to try and outwit me never came as he was suddenly yanked away. We both growled at whoever interrupted us, but I stopped as soon as possible. _Why the heck am I growling like a dog? A glare would have done the job fine, but instead I had to go animalistic. Why am I even mad in the first place?_

I masked my confusion as quickly as possible, turning my attention back to the present time. Unluckily, it was to see an irate Minato having a whisper argument with his silver-haired student. I could barely make out what they were saying.

A bold step forward to try and get involved in the discussion only earned me twin sets of glares. Kakashi's I was fine with (the little bastard), but having Minato's normally soft ocean eyes stare at me with never-before-seen anger and disapproval, I wilted like dying flower.

"You," Minato pointed a stern finger in my face, "are coming with me." His tone left no room for argument. "And you," he whipped around to face Kakashi, "are not going to follow, and if I sense you following then you will deeply regret it. Do not test me on that!" he growled out after seeing the defiance in Kakashi's stance.

With that said, Minato stomped off back towards the town, and I scurried after him. I glanced at Kakashi as I briefly passed him, only to see him slightly trembling. _I wonder what their argument was about if it made him_ this _angry._ Our eyes quickly connected and I shot him a small smile. _Hopefully he'll calm down._

 _Now,_ I broke contact and rushed after my sensei, cradling my hands to my chest as I ran, _I need to survive this conversation. Rest in peace myself._


	12. Chapter 12

Alright, let's do a little recap. Went on my first mission, which I can't tell if it was a success or not. On one hand, we accomplished our goal and safely delivered the client to his destination. On the other hand, my hands got shredded! _At least Kakashi re-wrapped my hands; they feel slightly better now._

Now, I jogged after an infuriated Minato. His angry march through the streets bordered on a childish tantrum, which actually seemed like an accurate description at the moment. I smirked internally at the fact I could tease him later for it if his mood improves. _But what if it doesn't? What will I do then? Will they throw me out for being dishonest with them, but they're too nice for that. Right? But they are ninjas and ninjas are meant to deceive. So technically that makes me not telling them anything alright however morally it's not. Ya, the characters were so nice in the comics that there is no way for them to drop me…right?_

My internal ramblings continued as I followed my sensei. I didn't even know where we were going I was so lost in my mind. My thoughts kept escalating until I had a dramatic, rushed debate in my mind about Minato's (and possibly Kushina's) reactions to the truth. I hunched in on myself, cradling my hands more and did my best to hug my chest as if trying to hold myself together. My trust issues were acting up, and I realized that and berated myself for it, but at the same time I couldn't stop it.

"Hello," a sweet voice interrupted my thoughts, jolting me back to reality. I finally acknowledged my surroundings, taking in the pristine white walls and the smell of cleaning supplies. _Great, the hospital. Why did Minato come here?_

"Hello," Minato replied to the nice receptionist, leaning against the counter in a falsely relaxed posture, "I need the medical records of this young lady right here." The woman twisted her head to get a glimpse of me behind Minato, and when her eyes brightened in recognition I knew there absolutely no way I could bullshit my way out of this pickle now.

"Hannah!" She exclaimed. I shyly smiled back, avoiding the accusing glare of Minato.

"Hi Melissa," I responded shortly. Her smile faded a little bit and her face gained a confused glaze.

"Are you alright? You aren't due back for another appointment for another week, but you look, let's say, not so well." I looked down at myself. I was still hunched over, almost caving in on myself exactly like a terrified child. The barest hint of red blood could be seen leaking through the fresh bandages on my hands, and I realized my entire body was shaking. _Jeez Hannah pull yourself together._ I straightened up, let my arms hang at my side, and forced myself to stop shaking.

"Thanks, but I'm alright," I answered, "so let's just leave since everything seems to be fine here. Okey dokey? Cool." I slowly started shuffling towards the entrance of the hospital, but a firm grip on my arm stopped me.

"Not gonna be that easy," Minato stated, "Melissa I need those documents. I'm her guardian at the moment and have permission to access those files." Melissa warily looked between Minato and I before ultimately turning away to look through the draws of files. I mean, who would disobey an order from the soon-to-be Hokage?

The brunette woman finally handed Minato a stack of papers, a larger amount than what a normal 16 year old should have. He took the stack carefully, tucked it into his juunin vest, and then guided me out of the building at a fast pace. I could briefly here the goodbye from Melissa, my nurse, before I fully exited the building.

It might've been the situation, but the sun felt more harsh on my eyes and I squinted to see. I felt more paranoid than ever and my muscles were constantly tense. Let's just say, it was a stressful walk to Minato and Kushina's house.

When we arrived, Minato yanked the door open and basically threw me on the couch. I bounced for a second before settling, and watched as Minato left the room to go, I'm assuming, to the bedroom where Kushina was. He left with a nice and friendly death glare in my direction, the order to stay still clear in his blue eyes. I fidgeted as I waited, my active imagination taking control over my mind once again to make me overthink things. It felt like forever until Minato and Kushina walked into the living room to see me sitting there anxiously.

I could see tears filling Kushina's eyes as she saw me, gasping for air before running at me and before I knew it, I was struggling to breath through her bear hug. Her face pressed into my hair, one hand cradling the back of my head so it forced me to return the hug. I wasn't very fond of hugs and touching on a normal day, but right now instead of cringing away from the embrace like I normally would I reluctantly relaxed into the hug. _I don't need the comforting, but Kushina does so I'll suck it up for her._

Someone clearing their throat reminded Kushina to release me, and we both turned to look at the only blond in the room. Minato seemed to be trying to look stern in front of me, but I could see the internal battle he was having with his empathy starting to show. I turned to look at Kushina again.

"It really isn't that bad," I started with. Kushina's caring mood automatically did a 360 degree turn as she now glared at me and unknowingly grasped my bandaged hands to keep me facing her. I violently flinched at the grip and Minato finally rushed into movement and flashed to the couch, gently but firmly removing Kushina's hands from mine. I could immediately tell that Kushina hadn't noticed my injuries and that she felt immensely guilty. "It's ok," I croaked out. Her once again watery eyes glanced up. She seemed to actually accept the reassurance which was surprising. But I think it was just the simmering disappointment at the situation that put the guilt into the farthest reaches of her brain.

"Ok first off," the older red-head began, "I'm sorry about grabbing your hands, I didn't know they were injured, which I will nail Minato later for not protecting you enough on one of your first missions." Her reprimand was interrupted as she sent a quick, spicy glare in the direction of her husband who sheepishly grinned. "Second of all, why in hell would you not tell us about these medical visits? A surgery? Medicine? What is all this secrecy about? We are your legal guardians right now and as such you need to tell us these things. We haven't known each other long but we feel responsible for you. You are not aloud to go behind our backs like this!" Kushina huffed out as she finished her passionate speech.

I took a second. Analyzing everything she said and letting it process in my head as both Minato and Kushina sat in front of me patiently. It's just, something did _not_ feel right, and as I slowly realized what it was I slowly started getting pissed off.

"Hannah," I cut off whatever Minato was going to say by standing up quickly. I glared down at the two.

 _Who do they think they are? Reprimanding me like I'm their own child! I died! And then was suddenly popped into this fucking world with no explanation and they think they can automatically replace my parents who I will probably never see again? Nobody has any rights over me! I'm all alone now! That's what I get for trying to help someone! So, I will do whatever the fuck I want with my health because it is mine and I have dealt with it for years! I will continue to do so until I'm fully healthy and then continue not letting people know about my life because, guess what? It's mine! They are ninjas so of course I'm not going to trust them even if they are from that stupid show and I know their personalities like the back of my hand! Nobody here is trustworthy!_

"So stay out of my fucking business!" I growled out. I sprinted out of the house after that and kept running, now matter how much the pounding of my feet jarred my injured hands. _Holy shit I really hope I didn't say that all out loud._

I quickly arrived at some random tree in a random forest and crumpled next to it. I stared up at the sky, my back against the trunk, and let the tears roll down my face. _God I hate crying._

But I couldn't stop. My chest hurt as I tried to stop the flow of tears, but the resistance just caused an ugly sob to be ripped from my chest. I put the back of my hand against my mouth in order to contain the sounds, but I didn't know if it did anything. It was the light touch to my shoulder, however, that instantly silenced the sounds.

I whipped my head to face them, and my eyes widened in shock. _If anything I thought it would be Kushina or even Minato that chased after me. Not, Kakashi._

The silver haired ninja crouched next to me, staring at me contemplatively.

"Leave. I don't want anyone here," I stated as calmly as possible. In response, he readjusted his position so he was leaning against the tree as I was, his arm just barely brushing against mine. He didn't say anything, didn't even look at me. He just stared out into the field and sat there as I stared at him immensely confused.

Eventually, I calmed down enough to go back to relaxing. The tears were gone, but the sad atmosphere still lingered heavily.

Kakashi and I just sat there for hours. Staring off into the distance as the sun set and the moon came up. I was so into my head that I didn't know when Kakashi's arm got firmly pressed against mine. Or when I started getting tired and my head dropped to his shoulder. And I definitely didn't acknowledge the ninja's arm moving to wrap around my shoulders and hugging me more into his side right before I drifted off to sleep.

* * *

My eyelids fluttered open as the harsh rays of morning light attacked my face. _Wow, very poetic Hannah._ The forest surrounding me seemed to glow emerald in the sunlight, and as I watched the changing colors I never felt more at peace. Sadly though, it was at that moment that my brain decided to wake up.

 _Ah shit, yesterday went down so bad. I can't believe I reacted that way. Overreact much? Wait a sec, what about Kakashi?_

I realized then how unnaturally comfy and warm I was when I was supposed to be in the woods, normally a terrible place to get a comfortable rest. My senses also now acknowledged the sound of deep breathing and the feel of warm breath brushing the top of my head..

I tilted my head to gaze up at the body next to me, and the sight of a peacefully sleeping Kakashi was a startling one.

My breathing quickened as I started to unnecessarily panic. _What do I do now? Do I try to leave? How could I possibly leave? He's a shinobi, he'll sense that right away. But it'll be so awkward when he wakes up. What to do, what to do!_

I snapped out of my thoughts and my breath stopped short when I finally acknowledged the half-lidded gray eyes that calmly stared down at me. I jumped up with an undignified screech and took a couple steps back. Kakashi simply watched me, silently amused, as he too stood up but way more gracefully.

"Um, let's just forget this ever happened. Ya? Cool, cool…" I trailed off as I saw the silver-haired teen stalk closer. I didn't know what he was doing until he grabbed my arm and began doing a hand sign one-handed. "What are you doing?" I asked aggressively.

He just smirked at me ( _I could tell as his mask twitched slightly)_ and completed the sign. The two of us suddenly surrounded by white smoke and the sudden nausea was my unfortunate answer, and as I battled the urge to throw up I flipped Kakashi off. I didn't know where he shunshined us but I knew it probably wasn't good, considering he didn't tell me where so he might have thought I would've fought against the transportation.

I was correct in my assumption. I looked up to see the door that some hours ago I had stormed out in a fit of rage. I turned to Kakashi pleadingly asking silently for him not to do whatever it was he was going to do. Instead, he ignored my look and pounded on the door, a tight grip on my arm as if expecting me to run. I prepared myself for the inevitable.

 _Welp. I guess this dramatic situation is gonna continue. Yay me._


End file.
